Cipla Battles With Superbugs as Antibiotic Resistance Rises

Company remains focused on India, says no option for it to not be in the antibiotics segment

- Jessica Jani

Mumbai-headquartered drugmaker Cipla Ltd is bolstering its focus on a pipeline of drugs to fight infections caused by bacterial antimicrobial resistance in India, a growing health crisis.

The company, a leader in the infectious diseases segment, has already launched two antibiotics targeting such superbugs and sees the segment as a long-term focus area, a senior executive told Mint.

"Since we began our work on (antimicrobial drug resistance), our strategic plan has been to introduce three to four products in the AMR space over a 5-year horizon," Dr. Jaideep Gogtay, Cipla's global chief medical officer, said in an interview. "I think it will be a long-term strategy. As a company which remains focused on India, there is no option for us to not be in the antibiotics segment," Gogtay added.

Antimicrobial drug resistance occurs when microorganisms like bacteria or fungi evolve to resist the drugs designed to kill or inhibit them. These 'superbugs' render existing treatments ineffective and can lead to escalation of the infection, and cause death as well.

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance was associated with 4.71 million global deaths in 2021, according to a Lancet study. This could increase to 39 million by 2050. India, which is one of the world's largest antibiotic markets, also has one of the highest burdens of drug resistance.