Natco Pharma, one of the few Indian companies to venture into new drug discovery research, witnessed a rise in share price on Monday after it  announced today that it has signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences, to manufacture and sell generic versions of its chronic hepatitis C medicines.

The medicines include sofosbuvir, ledipasvir/sofosbuvir an d the investigational NS5A inhibitor GS-5816, which is being evaluated in Phase 3 clinical studies a s part of a single tablet regimen that combines the compound and sofosbuvir for the treatment of all six genotypes of hepatitis C.

Shares of the company are trading at Rs 1,417, up Rs 48.3, or 3.53% at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday at 12:56 p.m.

The scrip has touched an intra-day high of Rs 1,441.05 and low of Rs 1,378.95. The total volume of shares traded at the BSE is 8,223.