Wockhardt Sees New Drugs To Fight Superbugs As Next Growth Driver
Wockhardt, founded in 1967, now has six novel formulations in the pipeline, with a second drug Zaynich also expected to launch later in 2025 to tackle complex hospital infections.
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Wockhardt Ltd. expects a boost to revenue from its new drug to fight pneumonia-causing superbugs in India, where rampant use of antibiotics has made the population vulnerable to antimicrobial resistance.
The Mumbai-based company expects the drug Miqnaf, a short three-day treatment for infections caused by multi-drug resistant pathogens, to clock 5 billion rupees ($58.2 million) to 10 billion rupees in revenue annually from India alone, Chairman Habil Khorakiwala said in an interview.
Miqnaf and other new drugs are expected to contribute a “fairly significant” proportion of the company’s revenue from the financial year ending March 2027, he said. Shares have surged almost 192% in the past year versus 4.2% climb by the S&P BSE Sensex.
More than 39 million people could die globally from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years, according to a study published in The Lancet. India has the highest rate of antibiotics use in the world, with a government survey showing over 55% of antibiotic prescriptions in India are from the World Health Organization’s so-called “Watch” group, which are drugs that are more likely to be resisted.
Wockhardt’s novel drug, which showed a 97% success rate in treating pneumonia resistive to existing therapies, received the Indian regulator’s approval this month. The company plans to expand its reach to markets in the Middle East, north Africa, Russia, Asia and Latin America.
“We will initiate regulatory filings in emerging markets,” Khorakiwala said, adding that there are plans to file for approvals in the US and the UK, although he didn’t specify a timeline.
Wockhardt, like most Indian pharmaceutical makers, earns the biggest chunk of its revenues making generic drugs and selling largely in the US. The firm used funds it earned from selling non-patented drugs to discover antibiotics, pumping $50 million to $70 million in a trial for one drug.
Shares of the drugmaker have climbed more than 200% in the past year and the company was the best performer in the BSE Healthcare Index in 2024. The company has come a long way from the troubled days of 2009 when it was on the verge of being taken over by lenders after defaulting on bank loans.
Miqnaf, the first new antibiotic in that therapeutic area in over 30 years, was developed with support from India’s state-run Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council. Wockhardt has the patent on nafithromycin — the active ingredient in Miqnaf — for about 10 more years, Khorakiwala said.
“We’ve not really had these kinds of short-course treatments for community-acquired pneumonia, bacterial pneumonias in some time,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, president of One Health Trust and chair of board of Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership. “What has been done by Wockhardt is actually quite path-breaking.”
Six-Drug Pipeline
Wockhardt, founded in 1967, now has six novel formulations in the pipeline, with a second drug Zaynich also expected to launch later in 2025 to tackle complex hospital infections. The drug is currently in global phase 3 clinical trial.
Zaynich demonstrated over 97% efficacy in a clinical study treating “seriously ill” patients across a range of severe infections including hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia, bloodstream infections, and intra-abdominal infections, Wockhardt told exchanges on Monday.
The firm ventured first into making novel drugs to combat multidrug resistance about 25 years ago, as big pharma was retreating from that space to focus on more lucrative cardiovascular and cancer therapies.
Advancements at Wockhardt, along with Chennai-based Orchid Pharma Ltd. and Bengaluru-based Bugworks Research, has positioned India as the only lower-middle income country conducting novel antibiotic discovery.
Its research is also a significant development in a study area facing an investment and innovation crunch, as large pharmaceutical firms withdraw from the field.
Wockhardt now plans on pivoting to largely being a novel drugmaker in the next decade, Khorakiwala said, adding that it is now re-engineering its organization to market new therapies.
“Our future growth primarily is going to come from our drug discovery program and the biologics,” he said. “We have already identified couple of molecules in areas where there is still a gap. So every two, three years we should be able to meet an unmet need.”
