For more than 80 years, antibiotics have helped save millions of lives. Ever since penicillin began being made on a large scale, these medicines have helped people recover from dangerous infections. Because of antibiotics, people today live about 23 years longer on average than they did before.
But there is a problem. Many antibiotics have been used too much or used incorrectly. As a result, some bacteria have learned how to survive these medicines. This is called antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. It caused about 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019, and experts fear it could kill 10 million people every year by 2050, if nothing changes.
That is why scientists need to develop new and stronger antibiotics. A new drug called Zaynich, made by the Indian company Wockhardt, is an important step in that direction.
Zaynich is special for another reason too. It is the first completely new medicine, called a “new chemical entity” (NCE), that has been fully designed, developed, and sold by an Indian company and approved by the US drug regulator. Earlier, another Indian company, Orchid Pharma, had created a drug called enmetazobactam to fight resistant germs. Although some of its development work was done elsewhere, it was also approved in 2024. These successes could earn Indian companies billions of dollars.
The good news is that Indian drug companies are working on several more new medicines. India is already famous for making low-cost generic medicines, but it is now trying to become a leader in inventing new drugs as well. This became easier after India changed its patent laws in 2005 to better protect new pharmaceutical inventions.
However, India faces strong competition from China. China, which also makes many generic medicines, has become a major creator of new drugs. Today, about one-quarter of the world’s new drug candidates come from China.
Can India keep up? History suggests it can. In 1920, Indian scientist Upendranath Brahmachari invented a treatment for kala-azar while working under very simple conditions, using the light of a kerosene lamp. His medicine increased the survival rate of patients from 10% to 90%.
Indian scientists clearly have the talent. With the right government support, laws, and incentives, India could create many more life-saving medicines in the future.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
