Wockhardt seeks G-20 aid for antibiotics

This may help contain the problem of anti-microbial drug resistance

Habil Khorakiwala-led health care major Wockhardt is planning to globally introduce antibiotics that may help contain the problem of anti-microbial drug resistance. 

The Mumbai-based drug maker has sought the Centre’s intervention to seek funding from G-20 countries, an international forum of governments for development of the portfolio, a top government official told Business Standard. 

The antibiotic has been in the making for the last two decades. Currently, it’s learnt to be at an advanced stage of development. 

While the investment made has not been divulged, estimates suggest that a similar drug development in the US could mean an investment of anything between $1 billion and $1.5 billion over a long term. 

Participation of G-20 countries — Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union — will help Wockhardt access the international market, officials pointed out. 

 

The development comes in the backdrop of the World Health Organization (WHO) directing member countries to undertake projects that may help deal with anti-microbial resistance. 

In fact, a series of high-level global meetings, including WHO ministerial conference in Moscow this November, has been planned on the subject. It will be a key agenda at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York as well next year. 

 

Representatives from Wockhardt recently met senior government officials from the central drug regulator and the Centre’s think-tank Niti Aayog to discuss product approval and assistance in research and development of the drug. 

Queries sent to the company went unanswered. 

In a latest study, the WHO listed 12 kinds of bacteria that are resistant to multiple drugs. 

Only two new antibiotics to address MDR-TB have completed Phase IIB trials in the past 50 years. Both are still in Phase III trials, and more funding will be required to complete the process and to develop other effective treatment regimens, the report observed.

Recenty, the American health regulator US FDA granted Qualified·Infectious·Disease·Product (QIDP)·status·to five drugs, that Wockhardt has been working on for around 20 years. 

This makes Wockhardt the only pharmaceutical company in the world to have 5 experimental antibiotic drugs given QIDP status by US FDA. These drugs are for treating blood, lung and urinary tract infections; pneumonia; bronchitis and pharyngitis, among others.