Dr. Anil Kumar Angrish
Divya Trehan
Pharmapreneurship has gained attention from many prominent institutions, e.g., The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy has got the word, ‘Pharmapreneurship’ registered. Their initiative, ‘The Pharmapreneurs’ Farm’ is a dedicated space for their faculty, staff, and students to collaborate, nurture, and develop their pharmapreneurial ideas.
Career Transition has played significant role in nurturing pharmapreneurs in India as it is the interaction of career transitions and entrepreneurship which represents a critical link where individuals navigate changes in their professional lives while they explore opportunities to pursue entrepreneurial endeavours. Multiple factors such as shift in labour market dynamics, accumulated experience, understanding of market dynamics, technological advancements, etc drive this convergence. Entrepreneurs have their own circumstances and justification regarding their plunge into entrepreneurship stream. For example, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, shared ‘regret minimization framework’. Bezos explained that he asked himself what he would regret more when he was 80 years old: Trying to build something he had strong conviction in and failing, or failing to give it a try? Bezos realized that not trying would haunt him every day.
Qualification, work experience, self-realisation and motivation had huge impact on career transitions of pharmapreneurs in India. As pharmaceutical industry is complex, and highly regulated at each stage of value chain so educational qualification and experience contributes a lot to the success of pharmapreneurs. As majority of Indian pharmaceutical companies are family-owned or are dominated by promoters so career transition of the founders and promoters of prominent pharmaceutical companies in India provides interesting insights.
Late Dr. Khwaja Abdul Hamied, the founder of Cipla Limited had learnt tricks of the trade with his father who started a shop – Alison Chemists & Druggists after his retirement. Dr. Hamied taught at Jamia Millia too while managing the shop. He had extensive training in chemical and technical analysis of food stuffs, drugs and medicines while he stayed in Germany after his Ph.D. He even ran an agency of Seidel & Naumann, Dresden for typewriters at Bombay before entering into an agreement with Homo Pharma, Berlin in 1929 for the agency of ‘Okasa’, a fast-selling drug in Europe as an outstanding restorative tonic. It was in 1935 that the Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratories (CIPLA) Limited was registered as a public limited company.
Dr. Desh Bandhu Gupta had PG degree in Science (Chemistry) and taught at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, Rajasthan for some time. He worked for a British pharma company that became part of Sanofi-Aventis (now Sanofi). It was in 1968 that he started Lupin Limited with just Rs. 5,000 at that time taken from his wife. Lupin’s first manufacturing plant started supplying iron and folic acid tablets for the flagship programme of the Government of India. Cadila Labs was founded by Ramanbhai Patel and Indravadan A. Modi. Ramanbhai Patel was a pharmacy professor and co-founder Indravadan A. Modi had his degree in Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals before joining as the Chief Chemist in a Chemical manufacturing unit. Founders had complementary skill set. They came together to set up Cadila Labs and started making vitamins to treat anemia as vitamins were in short supply at that point of time. In 1995, Ramanbhai Patel and I.A. Modi parted ways to set up their own companies – Cadila Pharmaceuticals and Cadila Healthcare (now, Zydus Lifesciences) respectively.
Dr. Kallam Anji Reddy, founder of Dr. Reddy’s Labs was a B.Sc. graduate from Bombay University with specialization in Pharmaceutical Science and Fine Chemicals. He obtained Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune. His career transition was unique as he joined the state-owned Indian Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) when he left in 1973. He became part of founding team of bulk drug manufacturing ventures in late 70s and early 80s, and in 1984, he formed Dr. Reddy’s Labs (DRL). Samprada Singh, founder of Alkem opened a medical store in 1953, and formed a pharmaceutical distribution company in the name of Laxmi Pharma after about six years. Then Magadh Pharma was started as a pharmaceutical distribution company in Patna (Bihar). His younger brother, Basudeo N. Singh completed his graduation and opted for teaching initially and joined the business on receiving a call from his elder brother.
Uttambhai Nathalal Mehta (U.N. Mehta), founder of Torrent Group initially worked as a medical representative with Sandoz in 1940s and founded Torrent in 1959. He pioneered the concept of niche marketing when all players in the pharma sector used to focus on the masses. Ramesh Juneja, founder of Mankind Pharma graduated with a Science degree from a Meerut-based college and joined pharma sector in 1974 as a sales representative with Kee Pharma. He became a Regional Sales Representative for Lupin Limited in 1975. After resigning from Lupin in 1983, he and his brothers, Rajeev Juneja, Greesh K. Juneja along with their sister Prabha Arora and an external partner, founded BestoChem. Ramesh Juneja, Rajeev Juneja, and Prem Kumar Arora left BestoChem in 1995 to launch Mankind Pharma.
Hasmukh Chudgar, founder of Intas Pharma, had his Bachelor of Pharmacy in 1954 from a prominent college under Gujarat university. After graduation, he worked in Mumbai for International Pharmaceutical Agency which ultimately inspired the name of his own company – INTAS. The firm, in which he worked had two partners out of which one was an American citizen. After death of the local partner, the US-based partner went back to the US and entire responsibility was with Hasmukh Chudgar. International Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1977 as a sole proprietary organization and name was changed to Intas Labs Pvt. Ltd. In May 1985, and subsequently to Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited in March 1995.
Journey of Kiran Mazumdar – Shaw is remarkable as she obtained B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Zoology from Bangalore University in 1973 and graduated as a Master Brewer from Ballarat university in 1975 to follow her father’s footsteps who was a master brewer. She was denied the job of heading the brewery because of gender bias. Her entrepreneurial journey took off when Ireland-based Biocon Biochemcials approached her for a partnership to source some enzymes from India, and a joint venture was formed in 1978. She started her own company, Biocon, in a rented garage in Bangalore. Stake of Irish partner was acquired by Unilever, UK in 1989. Unilever kept on insisting that she should dilute her stakes but could not be convinced. In 1998, she and her husband John Shaw bought the shareholder of Unilever in Biocon to form an independent company – Biocon.
Glenmark was established by the founder Gracias Saldanha in 1977 who had master’s degree in science, and a Diploma in Management Studies. The founder had worked with different pharmaceutical companies such as Abbott Labs, E.Merck for more than 12 years before setting up Glenmark Pharma named after his two sons – Glenn and Mark. Satish Ramanlal Mehta had a Postgraduate degree in Chemistry from Pune University and a PG diploma in Management from IIM-Ahmedabad founded Emcure Pharma in 1981. His experience with his father, in the distribution business of pharmaceutical products groomed him.
Alembic which was initially formed as Alembic Chemicals Works in 1907 had founders namely Prof. T. K. Gajjar, the first renowned chemist in the Western India, Prof. A. S. Kotibhasker, a gold medalist in Technological Chemistry and B.D. Amin. Founders of Macleods Pharma had extensive experience in health/pharma as Girdhari Lal Bawri worked as a MR for a pharma company, and Rajendra Agarwal was a medical doctor. Initially, their family owned a Pharmacy in Jaipur. Murali Divi, founder of Divi’s Labs holds Doctorate degree in pharmaceutical sciences and was a long-term partner of Dr. K. Anji Reddy before forming his own eponymous venture – Divi’s Labs.
Mahendra Prasad, founder of Aristo Pharma initially worked with Samprada Singh (Alkem) and later took up trading in pharmaceutical products before starting Aristo Pharma in 1971. Founder of J.B. Pharma, Jyotindra Bhagwanlal Mody established pharma distribution agency along with his siblings. Amit Bakshi, founder of Eris Lifesciences had served in Intas Pharma. Eris Lifesciences was founded by him along with his three colleagues. He realized the potential of the industry and started selling specialty drugs in cardiology and diabetology segments which he knew well as he had been working in the pharma industry since 1996.
There are exceptions too where founders came from different educational background. But in all those cases, prior experience had direct bearing on entrepreneurs to become pharmapreneurs. Before founding Sun Pharmaceutical Industries in 1983, Dilip Shanghvi, otherwise a Commerce graduate, had exposure in pharmaceutical business as his father ran a small, wholesale medicine shop in Dawa bazaar in Calcutta (name changed to Kolkata in 2001). USV was initially started as US Vitamin and Pharmaceutical by Vithal Balkrishna Gandhi who had his master’s degree in economics from Columbia University. His initial venture was dealing in medical products and radio accessories when the company was named as American Products Company Limited. G.C. Surana, founder of Micro Labs even though worked as an accountant but it was a pharmaceutical distribution company, and became distribution partner initially before starting Micro Labs in 1973. P. V. Ramprasad Reddy, founder of Aurobindo Pharma had his bachelor’s and master’s degree in commerce. He had a brief stint with Dr. K. Anji Reddy. Co-founder K. Nityanand Reddy studied Chemistry so complementary strength helped in formation of Aurobindo Pharma in 1986.
There is a long list of pharmapreneurs in India but to generalize, education and experience of working in family pharma business on a small scale or working in pharmaceutical industry, remained two turning points in the life of almost all pharmapreneurs who founded the companies which now collectively hold more than 2/3rd market share of pharmaceutical industry in India.
Dr. Anil Kumar Angrish-Associate Professor (Finance and Accounting), Department of Pharmaceutical Management, NIPER S.A.S. Nagar (Mohali), Punjab
Divya Trehan-Pursuing MBA (Pharm.), Department of Pharmaceutical Management, NIPER S.A.S. Nagar (Mohali), Punjab
Disclaimer: Views are personal and do not represent the views of the Institute.
