Pharma in her DNA, Wockhardt scion ready for deep dive in the US

Mumbai: Sometime around November last year, when Wockhardt founder Habil Khorakiwala asked his youngest child, Zahabiya, if she would lead the company’s US business and spearhead the rollout of its breakthrough antibiotic Zaynich, she did something she rarely does.

She paused.

“My natural instinct is usually to say yes, instinctively,” she recalls. “But this time I took a couple of days,” says Zahabiya, talking to ET in her eighth-floor office at Wockhardt Towers in Mumbai’s busiest financial district, just a floor below her father’s office, where she was first offered the role.


Her initial reaction reflected the weight of the assignment that would place her at the centre of Wockhardt’s biggest bet in decades: commercialising its novel antibiotic, Zaynich (cefepime + zidebactam).

The company believes Zaynich could generate peak sales of $1.5-2.0 billion in the next 5-6 years, with the US expected to contribute 40-50% of the revenue, and help transform the Mumbai-headquartered drugmaker into a global powerhouse in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Zaynich works on superbugs or bacterial infections that show resistance against existing antibiotic treatments and could potentially be a game-changing drug in treating drug-resistant gram-negative pathogens (pathogens that are difficult to kill). The drug has a market opportunity of about $9 billion.

Looking back at her early days at Wockhardt, immediately after her MBA from ISB Hyderabad in 2009-10, Zahabiya says: “I came in at an inflection point, and at that point we decided that we will still retain part of the business.”

“When I look back at my journey, I have never come into something I know. And you probably only figure out your potential when you are given something,” adds the 43-year-old, who is also the managing director of Wockhardt Hospitals and rebuilt the company’s presence after the group piled up debts.

Her elevation comes at the most crucial phase of the company's bid for a complete transformation, from being a cost-competitive generics player to a value-based innovation company.

Zaynich's US regulatory approval is not just a breakthrough; it also ends a drought of five decades of a new antibiotic that the world has been looking for patiently. AMR, or antimicrobial infections, are expected to kill 10 million people by 2050 with no treatments in sight. And for Zahabiya, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a mark at the global stage dominated by a handful of multinational Big Pharma. To date, no innovative drug from India has progressed through the entire cycle of discovery, clinical development all the way to the approval stage in the US.

An enthused Zahabiya says: “My approach is always to really deep dive and get a very strong first-hand understanding of the business, the critical levers and key stakeholders."

Time is of the essence, and every day counts. For the past few months, she has immersed herself in the science of antibiotics and meeting scientists, doctors and key hospital and customer stakeholders.

Among her first moves was to onboard key leadership for commercialisation of Zaynich, led by chief commercial officer William McNay, a pharma veteran who earlier led the commercialisation of Shionogi’s Fetroja (cefiderocol), considered a benchmark in antibiotic development.

She explains the three pillars of the company’s US roll-out as rapid hospital penetration through market access, deep clinical adoption through physician advocacy and medical engagement and demonstrating economic value to hospital systems through outcomes data. There are about 1.2 million gram-negative hospital infections in the US every year.

Asked about the long-term business opportunity of antimicrobial resistance, she says: “Pathogens are becoming more resistant and the need for antibiotics like Zaynich and the molecules that follow will only grow. We may just be seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

Being in the hospital space for over 15 years and working closely with doctors and clinicians give her an edge. “I work with doctors and clinicians all the time. And that's the space I'm very comfortable in.”

Expressing confidence in his daughter’s leadership as she takes charge of the US business, Habil Khorakiwala, the company’s chairman, highlighted her ability to quickly master new areas and build effective teams. “Her ability to learn new things is very fast and getting on top of everything.”

Away from business, Zahabiya is a trained painter who studied art during her years in Switzerland. As an avid tennis player, she picked up lessons in agility and endurance. But the pleasure has now shifted to watching her daughters indulge in their own games.

Zahabiya, whose favourite books include Andre Agassi’s memoir Open, says she is much inspired by the idea that while people cannot always choose their circumstances, they can choose what they do with them.

That lesson may prove useful as she prepares for a role that will require frequent travel across the US, meetings with hospital systems and physicians, and the task of convincing clinicians to adopt a new class of antibiotic. If successful, the opportunity extends well beyond a single drug to an antibiotics pipeline.

“The long-term ambition is that we dominate the antibiotic space and become leaders globally. Zaynich is the first molecule, but the real opportunity is creating a platform with depth and multiple products that address unmet needs,” she says.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, the senior Khorakiwala says: "In a gentle way, you can shake the world." Zahabiya has her task cut out.