Wockhardt

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Wockhardt Ltd is an Indian pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Mumbai. It makes medicines, biopharmaceutical products, vaccines, nutrition items, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The company runs manufacturing plants in India, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and the United States, with subsidiaries in the US, UK, Ireland and France.

Wockhardt was founded in the 1960s by Dr. Habil Khorakiwala. It grew from a family business after Fakhruddin T. Khorakiwala bought Worli Chemical Works in 1959. It expanded into biotechnology, started producing intravenous fluids, and joined the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance in 1999 to promote generics. It was the first company outside the US and Europe to manufacture recombinant human insulin. In 2011 Wockhardt sold its nutrition business to Danone for about $356 million.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wockhardt helped fill-finish the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine at its Wrexham facility in the UK, with the contract later extended to August 2022. In 2021 it announced agreements to manufacture Sputnik V and Sputnik Light vaccines in India with Enso Healthcare and Human Vaccine LLC.

Wockhardt grew through acquisitions in the UK, India, Germany, Ireland, the US and France, and faced substantial debt, leading to leadership changes in 2009 when Habil Khorakiwala stepped down and his two sons took top roles. In 2013 the U.S. FDA found issues at some Wockhardt plants, including contamination risks in injectable medicines, and restricted exports from its Aurangabad facility.