Drugmaker Wockhardt Limited posted a reduced net loss at ₹177 crore for the three month period ended March 31, 2024, from a net loss of ₹237 crore in the same period last year.  

In the current reporting period, the company recognized an impairment loss of ₹79 crore on assets held for sale, besides incurring a loss of ₹42 crore on the sale of property, plant, and equipment attributable to the restructuring of the company’s United States operations, it said.

Wockhardt’s total income for the last quarter under review was ₹754crore, from ₹710 crore in the same period last year. The company clocked a total income of ₹2,881 crore for the year ended March 31, 2024, as compared to ₹2,773 crore last year, it told the stock exchange.  It’s annual net loss reduced to ₹472 crore in the year under review, from ₹621 crore, last year.

The company’s board has approved the reappointment of Dr Habil Khorakiwala as Executive Chairman from March 1,  2025, for five years (Feb 28, 2030).  It also approved an enabling proposal to raise funds through an issue of equity shares / securities convertible into equity shares etc;  Qualified Institutions Placement and/or on preferential allotment basis, it added.  

Antibiotics look to 2025 launch

Giving an update on its drug pipeline, Wockhardt indicated that two of its antibiotic products, including WCK 5222 (ZAYNICH), were looking at a launch in 2025.

The company was recruiting more patients for global clinical trials, with 392 already recruited. The trial was on in nine countries; about 30 patients had received it for compassionate use, after approval from the Drug Controller General of India, it said.  “The product resulted in 100 percent cure and was found to be safe even when administered upto 60 days,” it added.

On its Meropenem resistance clinical trial, it said, as the drug regulator had  advised a clinical trial involving  60 patients, and the recruitment process has been initiated. This trial would be completed in about nine months, the company said, following which WCK 5222  could be launched in India, early 2025.

On WCK 4873 (MIQNAF), Wockhardt said it had completed the Phase 3 pneumonia study of its antibiotic Nafithromycin WCK 4873. The product has been filed for regulatory approval and is expected in the third quarter of FY25, with commercial launch expected in Q4FY25, it said.

This would mean after 30 years, a new oral antibiotic WCK 4873 would be introduced in India for community acquired pneumonia with a success rate of over 97 percent, it said – addressing a problem of resistance arising from existing drugs like Azithromycin. “It is only a three-day treatment and it has eight times higher lung concentration than Azithromycin,” Wockhardt said.

R&D

Wockhardt said it had filed a patent in the quarter under review, taking its total filings up to 3263. It was granted three patents during the quarter and now holds 840 patents, it said. Research and development expenditure during the quarter was ₹33 crore for the quarter and ₹132 crore for the year.

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