3 weeks ago
India's New Antibiotic Discoveries Offer Hope Against Superbugs
Germs called bacteria can make the medicines that fight them, called antibiotics, stop working.
When medicines stop working, it is called antimicrobial resistance.
The World Health Organization says this problem was linked to more than 4.7 million deaths around the world in 2021.
Scientists in India have worked very hard to discover brand-new antibiotics.
A company called Wockhardt made a new medicine named Zaynich that helps treat serious bladder and kidney infections.
Another company, Orchid Pharma, found a special ingredient called enmetazobactam that helps older medicine fight germs again.
Wockhardt also made a new medicine for pneumonia called Nafithromycin.
These are some of the first truly new antibiotics in many years.
Doctors hope these medicines will help sick people when old medicines no longer work.
But germs keep changing, so scientists must keep finding new medicines in the future.
India's Wockhardt developed Zaynich, a novel cefepime and zidebactam combination approved by the US FDA and Indian regulators for complicated urinary tract infections.
Orchid Pharma discovered enmetazobactam, a molecule that blocks resistance enzymes, marketed internationally as Exblifep.
The WHO estimated bacterial antimicrobial resistance was associated with more than 4.7 million deaths globally in 2021.
Wockhardt also developed Nafithromycin (Miqnaf), the first new macrolide antibiotic globally in more than three decades, for drug-resistant pneumonia.
The WHO warned that resistance is increasing in more than 40 percent of monitored pathogen-antibiotic combinations.
Wockhardt invested more than a decade bringing its antibiotic from discovery through regulatory approval.
- Who
- Indian pharmaceutical companies Wockhardt and Orchid Pharma, with scientists such as Dr Radha Rangarajan of CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute
- What
- Two novel antibiotics, Zaynich and enmetazobactam-based Exblifep, were approved by regulators, with a third drug, Nafithromycin, also launched
- Where
- India, including Mumbai and Bengaluru, with approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration and Indian regulators
- When
- Exact dates are not specified in the article; development took more than a decade
- Why
- To address the growing global antimicrobial resistance crisis and the drying-up pipeline of new antibiotics
Breakthrough Perspective
Cautionary Perspective
India's innovation capability
Breakthrough Perspective
These discoveries prove Indian science can compete at the highest levels and challenge the criticism that India's pharmaceutical industry only copies medicines rather than innovating.
Cautionary Perspective
Critics have long argued India's pharma industry lacked a culture of original innovation, and these remain just two examples amid a severe global shortage of new antibiotics.
Impact on the AMR crisis
Breakthrough Perspective
The new drugs buy valuable time, expand treatment options, and prove innovation is still possible in one of the hardest areas of medicine.
Cautionary Perspective
Resistance eventually develops to every antibiotic, and the article notes these discoveries will not solve the global antimicrobial resistance crisis overnight.
Key facts
- Zaynich composition
- Cefepime + zidebactam (Wockhardt, Mumbai)
- Zaynich indication
- Complicated urinary tract infections, including pyelonephritis
- Exblifep composition
- Cefepime + enmetazobactam (Orchid Pharma)
- Nafithromycin brand name
- Miqnaf (Wockhardt)
- Nafithromycin indication
- Community-acquired bacterial pneumonia
- Global AMR deaths (2021)
- More than 4.7 million associated deaths
- WHO resistance finding
- Resistance increasing in over 40% of monitored pathogen-antibiotic combinations
- Support for Nafithromycin
- Backed by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)
Quotes
Dr. Radha Rangarajan
Director of the CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India
“"I cannot tell you how spectacular a success this is. In a field where we hear of so few successes and so few drugs going all the way to market, for treating infections this stands out."”
NDTV
Sources
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