KARACHI: Ferozsons Laboratories announced on Monday that its subsidiary BF Biosciences Ltd (BFBL) was in negotiations to enter into a non-exclusive license agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc for the manufacture and sale of Remdesivir to supply Pakistan and 126 other countries.

“There is no obligation at this time for any party to execute any transaction,” Ferozsons told the PSX in a notice.

Ferozsons share hit the upper circuit in trading on Monday as investors fell for the company stocks which also saw several other pharma companies’ record substantial gains.

It went on to say in the notice that “If an agreement is executed by Gilead and BFBL, once production starts, we are confident that we will have sufficient quantities over time to serve the needs of the patients in Pakistan.”

This was followed by a note of caution: “However, at the moment we are uncertain as to the timelines for first launch as an agreement remains to be executed, and thereafter local regulatory approvals and sourcing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient for manufacturing Remdesivir may take some time”.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2020