Wockhardt's Antibiotic Zaynich To Be Available In India At 80% Discount To US Price

Mumbai-based Wockhardt Ltd. will launch its novel antibiotic drug WCK 5222, or Zaynich, at discounts of 75-80% in India, the company's Chairman and Founder, Habil Khorakiwala, said. The drug is currently undergoing Phase 3 global trials.

Talking to NDTV Profit, Khorakiwala said the existing drugs in the category are priced at about $8,000 to $10,000 per treatment in the US. However, the India launch of the drug will not be made at such high prices.

“We will discount for the Indian market at least 75-80% of the US prices. One of our objectives is not only to have product success in the US and worldwide, but also to make it affordable,” he said.

He said they had a dual purpose of making the drug available worldwide and also adjust pricing based on the affordability factor.

Wockhardt aims to capture 75% of the total addressable market in the US through the launch of Zaynich.

“In the US, there are incidents of drug resistance in 5,00,000 to 7,00,000 patients, and we believe that the older drugs which have been approved recently may have 20-25% of the market. The balance market is an opportunity for us,” he said.

Zaynich can successfully treat infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens and can be effective against superbugs resistant to almost all antibiotics available today, becoming multi-drug resistant.

“Our global Phase 3 clinical trials will get over in 2-3 months, and we should be filing with US, Europe and India regulators somewhere in the second calendar quarter of next year and, hopefully, get approvals in early 2026,” Khorakiwala said.

The drug has a susceptibility breakpoint of 64 mg/litre for about 10 gram-negative pathogens. According to the Wockhardt chairman, all the recent antibiotics cleared by the regulators have received a breakpoint of 2 to 8 mg/litre. The higher a drug's breakpoint, the greater is its efficacy in handling different strains.

“This is historic and a breakthrough in treating multidrug resistance because our drug is going to be fairly effective for a long period of time,” he added.

Zaynich has successfully treated a case of meningitis and has had compassionate use in 35 cases. Khorakiwala claimed that it can treat infections that are difficult to cure, even when the patient is on a ventilator.

“We were able to continuously give the drug for 70 days in some cases. So the treatment can be marked for as long as 70 days, and it is safe. There were no side effects observed,” he said.

Annually, about five million people die due to multi-drug resistance around the world. The figure is around 1.1 million in India, as per the Wockhardt chairman.