“My instinct is to say yes,” she recalls. “But this time I took a couple of days,” says Zahabiya, talking to ET from her eighth-floor office at Wockhardt Towers in Mumbai’s busiest financial district.
Her first 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.
The company believes Zaynich could generate peak sales of $1.5-2.0 billion in 5-6 years, with the US expected to contribute 40-50% of the revenue. Zaynich works on bacterial infections that show resistance against existing antibiotic treatments and could be a game-changing drug in treating drug-resistant gram-negative pathogens.
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 we decided that we will still retain part of the business.”
“You probably only figure out your potential when you are given something,” adds the 43-year-old. Her elevation comes at the most crucial phase of the company’s bid for a complete transformation, from being a generics player to an innovation company.
Zaynich’s US regulatory nod is not just a breakthrough; it also ends a drought of five decades of a new antibiotic the world has been looking for. 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.An enthused Zahabiya says: “My approach is to deep dive and get a strong first-hand understanding of the business, the critical levers and key stakeholders.”
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.
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.
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. That’s the space I’m comfortable in.”