Don't See Covid Pills As Driver Of Profit, Says Merck Partner Dr Reddy's

Even as oral Covid pills from Pfizer Inc. and Merck are being hailed as game changers in the fight to curb the pandemic, generic drugmakers are getting a reality check that there may not be too much money on the table for them.

For a drugmaker licensed to produce Merck & Co.'s promising Covid-19 pill and sell Russia's Sputnik V shot, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. is surprisingly mellow about the rewards it expects from these medical breakthroughs even as virus waves continue to hit parts of the world.

"Covid portfolios are going to be short-lived," G.V. Prasad, its co-chairman and managing director said in an interview at the company's headquarters in of Hyderabad. "Life-cycles tend to be shorter, the opportunity will be very competitive, so I don't see Covid medicines as a driver of profit."

And this is despite Dr Reddy's, one of India's largest drugmakers, gearing to export Sputnik shots next year and expecting regulatory nod to produce Merck's antiviral drug molnupiravir within weeks. The reason: multiple licensees for the Merck drug will cap profits and manufacturing glitches for Sputnik have led to loss of precious time as the world's second-most populous nation was ramping up its inoculation drive.

Even as oral Covid pills from Pfizer Inc. and Merck are being hailed as game changers in the fight to curb the pandemic, generic drugmakers are getting a reality check that there may not be too much money on the table for them. With nearly every country eager to secure a drug stockpile -- the disease looks on course to becoming endemic  -- the mounting pressure to ensure drug access is forcing innovators to sign a bevy of production pacts.