Mumbai-based pharma major Wockhardt, which is gearing up to launch its promising antibiotic candidate Zaynich soon, on Friday announced a shift in its United States (US) operations.

IMAGE: Habil Khorakiwala, founder-chairman of Wockhardt, poses for a picture at the company’s head office in Mumbai. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

The Indian pharma giant revealed that it has decided to exit the generics pharmaceutical segment in the country.

Wockhardt stock price went up 3.5 per cent on Friday to Rs 1,756 apiece on the BSE. The announcement came after market hours.

According to a regulatory filing on the exchanges, the company has filed for voluntary liquidation under Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code for its two Delaware-incorporated step-down subsidiaries — Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals and Wockhardt USA LLC.

The move comes even as the company’s US generics business has been incurring losses over the past few years.

Wockhardt stated that its generics business had incurred a loss of nearly $8 million in 2024-25 (FY25) alone.

While Wockhardt USA LLC contributed around 3 per cent to the company’s income in the FY25, Morton Grove recorded no income.
 
Morton Grove’s net worth stood at 4.6 per cent, primarily from goodwill, whereas Wockhardt USA’s net worth was negative.

However, its overall performance has been improving.

For FY25, the company said its net loss stood at Rs 57 crore compared to Rs 472 crore in the year-ago period.

Revenue increased to Rs 3,012 crore compared to Rs 2,798 crore in 2023-24. It has also managed to pare debt — its net debt stood at Rs 1,830 crore in FY25 compared to Rs 3,314 crore in FY20.

“Following a comprehensive strategic review, the company has concluded that continuing in this segment would detract from its broader innovation agenda,” it said in an exchange filing.

By stepping away from the commoditised generics space, Wockhardt is now positioning itself to create long-term value through innovation, scientific excellence, and sustainable profitability.

Wockhardt said that the reset will allow for sharpened focus on building a future-ready business anchored in two key pillars — new antibiotic drug discovery and a biologicals portfolio in insulin.

“This decision, effective July 11, enables a clean and structured exit from a legacy segment and unlocks management bandwidth and capital for high-impact areas,” it added.

The company had also recently announced plans to launch its new class of antibiotic Zaynich or WCK5222.

It is targeted at treating complicated gram-negative infections in India this year.

The US launch for this was pegged at FY27.

Wockhardt estimates that the drug would have an addressable market of $7 billion in the US and Europe, besides a Rs 17,000 crore opportunity in India, taking the total prospects to $9 billion.

Apart from Zaynich, Wockhardt is pinning hopes on other drugs in its antibiotic portfolio (like Miqnaf or Nafithromycin), and its biotechnology portfolio, including insulins.

Miqnaf has already been launched in India and is used to treat community acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) & upper respiratory tract infections (RTI).

The drug has been granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) status by USFDA.

This indicates significant unmet needs and also breakthrough medicinal product (BMP) designation granted in Saudi Arabia.

Miqnaf is targeting a Rs 10,800 crore market in India with over 96 million potential prescriptions.

While it is exiting the US generics market, the company said it will remain committed to its pharmaceutical operations in India, the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland and other geographies. These are areas where its businesses continue to deliver strong performance.

Besides antibiotics, the company is bullish on its biotech capabilities where it focuses on diabetes management and sees a significant opportunity opening up in India and emerging markets.

This is after Danish major Novo Nordisk phases out human insulin cartridges.

In India, it provides an opportunity of Rs 450 crore or so, and in the emerging markets, the opportunity size is around $157 million.

Wockhardt noted in its investor presentation that with only three players operating in this space in India, it sees significant benefit.

Its focus on innovative portfolio and moving away from plain vanilla generics also comes at a time when Indian pharma firms are looking into their innovative portfolio.