Pharma companies offer defensive edge as well as growth kicker: Phani Shekhar, Angel Broking

In a chat with ET Now, Phani Shekhar, Fund Manager-PMS, Angel Broking, gives his views on the pharma sector.

ET Now: What do you do with large cap pharma?

Phani Shekhar: You hold them and whenever you get an opportunity, accumulate more. Dr. Reddy's, despite a subdued quarter, is looking at interesting times over the next six quarters because of new launches. Cipla has a newfound aggression in regulated US markets. The anti-infective portfolio and the respiratory portfolio have been growing in excess of 20%.

So going forward, volume growth will be the key driver for Cipla, something that was not really associated with Cipla. So interesting times and the Sun-Ranbaxy combination is supposed to emerge as a very very important combination. Thus, you cannot really ignore the midcaps also. Glenmark, Divi’s and Aurobindo are doing pretty well. So this is an interesting space.

You have expectation of a gradual improvement but not a dramatic improvement and you will always have fascination and inclination towards sectors like pharma which offer you the defensive edge as well as growth kicker.