Our R&D pipeline is quite strong, says Wockhardt head

Wockhardt has received the coveted status of qualified infectious disease product (QIDP) from the USFDA for a new antibiotic. Speaking to Bloomberg TV India, Wockhardt Chairman Habil Khorakiwala said the company has a “fairly strong” R&D pipeline.

The QIDP status for the new drug is a major achievement. Could you elaborate on what it really means for Wockhardt?

I think the USFDA, a couple of years back, identified that there is an antibiotic crisis and they decided to give, through a legislative action, a QIDP status. We have been working on this antibiotic drug discovery programme for nearly 20 years now, so our WCK-5222 received this QIDP status. This is our fourth drug to receive such status and our first drug in the gram negative space.

There has been a massive crisis of organism in the gram negative space and we believe this is an important medical need which is unmet. I am sure that our products will save many lives worldwide.

Can you give us a sense of what the market potential is looking like?

I can certainly say in terms of all these drugs, there is an unmet need and there is a very significant market opportunity available for us and the others who might be working in this space.

Is it possible for you to give us an outlook as far as the R&D pipeline goes for Wockhardt?

In terms of drug discovery, our R&D pipeline so far is quite strong because we have got this kind of special status by USFDA for four drugs. There is no other company anywhere in the world having so many drugs getting this status.

So I think we have fairly strong pipeline and our biggest challenge and opportunity in future is to conduct clinical trials and get these products in the market in three-five years.

In terms of therapies how much do antibiotics really contribute to your portfolio?

Currently, we do not have any new drug in anti-infective. In the domestic market, we have some of the antibiotics but that is relatively smaller in percentage. We also have antibiotics, which are off patent in a global sense. But its contribution is in single digit low percentage as part of our turnover. But what we are talking of is a new drugs and that is an entirely new opportunity.

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