India, July 3 -- Last month, an Indian pharmaceutical company accomplished something unprecedented. Wockhardt became the first Indian pharmaceutical company to win approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a new chemical entity that it had discovered, developed, and commercialized itself. Its new intravenous antibiotic, Zaynich - a combination of cefepime and the novel agent zidebactam - marks a turning point for an industry that has typically worked on producing cheaper versions of medicines invented elsewhere. But this is changing and Indian companies are beginning to create new drugs that the world needs.

At a time when many antibiotics are failing because of bacterial resistance, Zaynich was approved for complicated urina...