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    Wockhardt rallies after revival plan gets a boost from drug nod

    Synopsis

    Investors cheered the news, sending Wockhardt’s shares up by 5.7 per cent on the BSE on Thursday.

    pharma-gettyGetty Images
    The country’s Rs 16,000-crore antibiotic drug segment in India is growing at 7 per cent annually.
    Mumbai: Wockhardt is looking to revive its fortunes in the domestic pharmaceuticals market with the launch of two antibiotics that tackle multi-drug resistant bacteria.

    The drugmaker announced on Thursday that it has received approval from the country’s drug regulator to market Emrok IV and Emrok (oral) which would treat acute bacterial skin infections, including diabetic foot infection, caused by the super bug methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Their launch is expected in the next few months and will be primarily used on critically-ill patients.

    Investors cheered the news, sending Wockhardt’s shares up by 5.7 per cent on the BSE on Thursday.

    “We have been working on our drug discovery pipeline for the last 20 years, and this is the result of that work, Wockhardt chairman Habil Khorakiwala told ET.

    Wockhardt’s last antibiotic had hit the market in 2005, and Khorakiwala said the Mumbai-based drugmaker is the first Indian company to have brought in a new antibiotic since then. The two drugs are the first launch from the company’s drug discovery pipeline, he added.

    Aiming at Rs 100 crore revenue in the next 12 months, Wockhardt is betting that these two drugs will help it shore up its falling India sales.

    In 2019, Wockhardt’s India sales declined by 12 per cent from the previous year to Rs 1,289 crore. New entrants armed with products in chronic therapy areas like diabetes and cardiovascular ailments upped the pressure on company, which mostly has a lineup of anti-infective drugs.

    The country’s Rs 16,000-crore antibiotic drug segment in India is growing at 7 per cent annually.
    wock-graph

    “Our pipeline looks promising. We have two more drugs that are under an advanced stage of clinical trial, which we hope will hit the markets like US and Europe by 2023,” Khorakiwala said.

    India with its large pharmaceutical manufacturing base has also come under the scanner for indiscriminate use of antibiotics on patients and livestock, which has given rise to drug-resistance bacteria. The World Health Organisation, too, has attributed overuse of antibiotics in hospitals as a reason for the spread of the super bugs like MRSA.

    Wockhardt is betting on the relative safety profile of its drug compared to other antibiotics in this space like vancomycin, teicoplanin, daptomycin and linezolid.

    These drugs have multiple side-effects, including kidney damage and decrease in platelet count, which limits their use for a longer period and compromise the safety of critically-ill patients, the company said in its statement, adding that this complicates patient management due to increasing resistance to these agents.




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    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
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