Investors cheer Wockhardt on revival hopes; stock gained 41% in 2017

The drugmaker lost over Rs 20 billion of sales from the US market over the past four years

Wockhardt’s regulatory hassles are far from over but its stock has been the third best performer among pure-play pharmaceutical companies in the past 12 months, on signs of business recovery.

Cost-saving measures have helped the drugmaker minimise losses and the company is now evaluating an overseas bond issue to pre-pay a portion of its Rs 35-billion debt and fund research and development programmes. The Wockhardt stock gained 41 per cent in calendar year 2017 when the BSE health care index remained flat.

While almost all the major pharmaceutical companies have been impacted due to quality issues, Wockhardt has been hit