Under its UNITAID-funded projects, the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) has named Matrix Laboratories Limited as the primary supplier of five antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs, which are used in the secondline treatment plans.

Moreover, the India-based unit of Mylan has also been selected as the main supplier of seven anti-retrovirals (ARVs) used for pediatric treatment.

Matrix's second-line products chosen for the 2009 UNITAID-CHAI projects comprise heat-stable Lopinavir/Ritonarvir.

A recent scrutiny of drug-manufacturer Cipla's Bangalore plant by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed as many as nine deviations in the pharma firm's manufacturing process.

With the reports about the digression found at the plant, the shares of Cipla suffered a blow at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), as well as the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday. Despite the company justifying its stand and terming the deviations as "minor ones" relating to manufacturing practices, the stock fell at the BSE.

World's two biggest drug companies GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Pfizer Inc. will join hands to create a new company exclusively for developing and selling of HIV medicines. Both companies made announcement of the new venture on Thursday. The name of the company will be announced after the finalization of the deal. The new company will be based in London.

Basel - Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, said it was confident it would meet full year targets after reporting an 8 per cent growth in sales in the first-quarter.

Last month Roche bought for 46.8 billion dollars the remaining 44 per cent stake in the US biotech firm Genentech that it did not already own.

The Swiss company said in July it would set out its plan for the rest of the year to include Genentech, including bringing a head of the US company to the Roche board.

As per estimations by one of its lenders in February 2009, Ranbaxy Laboratories may be sitting on mark-to-market (MTM) losses of more than Rs 25 billion on foreign currency derivatives transactions signed up with a range of banking institutions.

With this lender alone, Ranbaxy is suffering an MTM loss of Rs 6 billion on the derivatives contracts that it signed during April-May 2008.

But, Ranbaxy is not the only company that has been hit by forex derivatives losses. The losses have seen across the segments.

Nirmal Bang has maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on Ranbaxy Laboratories to achieve a target between Rs 225-240 within 1-5 days.

Interested traders can buy the stock on dips with a stop loss of Rs 210.

Shares of the company, on Wednesday (April 15), closed at Rs 199.85 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 613.70 and a low of Rs 133.15 on BSE.