Shares of Wockhardt Limited hit a day high of Rs 1,974.00 on NSE on 29 May, surging as much as 11.5% intraday, after India’s drug regulator approved the company’s new antibiotic Zaynich for sale in the country.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation cleared Zaynich for adults with complicated urinary tract infections, including severe kidney infections. The approval also covers cases where the infection has spread to the bloodstream.

Most common antibiotics no longer work against certain bacteria. Drug-resistant Gram-negative infections are a growing problem in Indian hospitals, and doctors have few options when standard drugs like meropenem fail. 

Zaynich is built to tackle exactly that situation. In a global Phase 3 trial, it cleared the infection in 89% of patients, against 68.4% for meropenem. Among patients who also had a bloodstream infection, the difference was stark: 89% for Zaynich versus 44% for meropenem.

Wockhardt did earlier-stage testing at 15 hospitals in India on patients whose infections had already stopped responding to meropenem. 

The drug showed over 97% efficacy across a range of serious infections in that study. The company said Zaynich is fully discovered and developed in India.

At 11:04 am on 29 May, WOCKPHARMA was trading at Rs 1,919.00 on NSE, up by 8.36% from the previous close of Rs 1,771.00. It opened at Rs 1,925.00 and ran to Rs 1,974.00 at its peak, a fresh 52-week high. Year-to-date, the stock has gained 34.91%.

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