After facing a wave of troubles from the US drug regulatory body through the last 12 months, leading Indian drug maker Wockhardt introduced a whole host of changes in its systems. The latest one is the appointment of Mr Zoher Sihorwala, to head the company's regulatory and compliance units.

Mr Zoher Sihorwala will be joining the Mumbai based pharma giant after completing his stint as vice president of global regulatory affairs at Dr Reddy's.

As per reports, Mr Sihorwala has spent 20 years in the pharma business, primarily handling regulatory affairs. A master of pharmacy in medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry from Jamia Hamdard University, Sihorwala started his career as a junior assistant with Nicholas Piramal (now Piramal healthcare) in 1993. He later worked with Glenmark, Cadila Healthcare and Ranbaxy. At Dr Reddy's, Mr Sihorwala was part of the team that resolved the regulatory and compliance issues related to the company's Mexico facility. Wockhardt is said to be counting on this experience to effectively resolve the compliance issues it is facing from US and UK.

Wockhardt had locked horns with the US Food and Drug Administration last year when two of its manufacturing facilities at Aurangabad in Maharashtra were banned after good manufacturing practices violations were found. This ban led to the halt in exports to the US that cost the company $500 million in sales. Late last year, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) from UK also raised data integrity issues against the Indian drug maker.