Nine out of the top hundred wealthiest Indians are from India’s rapidly progressing, globally competitive pharmaceutical industry. Six of them have founded their companies while the other three have been the second generation entrepreneurs from the founding families who have steered the companies and made them globally competitive after taking the reins.
Here are the super achievers who created wealth and built globally competitive organizations.
1. Dilip Shanghavi has become the wealthiest pharmaceutical entrepreneur in the world and the fifth wealthiest Indian. How did he achieve what he achieved? By building India’s most-valued pharmaceutical company. Therapeutic segment by therapeutic segment. Acquisition by acquisition. Market by Market. He founded Sun Pharma a globally competitive pharmaceutical company that is making rapid strides towards becoming one of the ten fastest growing specialty pharma companies in the world with US $1.69 billion in sales, thirty-years ago in 1983. His net worth is US $9.2 billion.
2. Cyrus Poonawalla CO-founded Serum Institute of India in 1966 along with his brother Zavary Poonawalla. and built it to make the fifth largest vaccine manufacturing company in the world by volume and about US $250 million in sales. The top four vaccine makers are GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck and Novartis. The company supplies vaccines to about 140 countries in the world other than those in North America. His net worth is US $3.3 billion.
3.
Pankaj Patel the current chairman and managing director of Zydus Cadila, who took the mantle from his late father Ramanbhai Patel has set his eyes on internationalizing it ever since he took charge. The company is today not only the fifth-largest pharma company in India but also has a respectable presence in a number of international markets such as US, France, Spain, Japan and other markets in Asia and Africa. The company has crossed the coveted US $ one-billion mark in sales. His net worth is US $2.50 billion.
4.
Desh Bandhu Gupta, who borrowed from his wife’s savings to start a tiny pharma company, Lupin in 1968 took it to uncommon heights and made it one of the rapidly growing international specialty pharma companies with US $1.35 billion in sales today. Lupin is among the top five pharma companies in India and the world’s leading manufacturer of anti-tuberculous drugs. The company has its footprints in over seventy countries across the globe. His net worth is US $2.35 billion.
5.
Yusuf Hamied took the reins of the company, Cipla in 1972 on his father’s demise. From a mere ₹ 166 lakhs in 1966, he took the company to US $1.57-billion in sales today with its footprints virtually all over the globe. What is significant about Hamied is that in the process of building a huge business for his company, he always gave his humanitarian concerns and values a high priority. He is known throughout the world for selling the anti-Aids drugs to the poor at a fraction of the price that MNCs charge. He is now doing the same for anticancer drugs. His net worth is US $2.0 billion.
6.
Habil Korakiwala founded Wockhardt in the 1960s and made it as one of India’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with its foot prints in more than twenty countries across the world including highly regulated markets such as USA, UK, Ireland, France and Germany. It is a leading Indian generic company in the UK. The company is on its way to cross the coveted US $ One-billion in sales with present sales of US $908 million today. His net worth is US $1.80 billion
7.
Murali Divi, pharmacist and youngest of 13 siblings started Divis Labs in 1990 with a primary focus of developing new processes for the production of APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) and drug-intermediates. The company has grown clocking over US $350 million in sales. What is noteworthy about the company’s performance is that close to 90 per cent of its sales are from exports, with regulatory markets such as US and European Union being its focus. His net worth is 1.49 billion.
8.
K. Anji Reddy has been playing a pioneering role in Indian pharmaceutical industry ever since he founded Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in 1984. First, he has been instrumental in placing India in the bulk drug map of the world. Second, he proved to the world that drug research need not be prohibitively expensive by suggesting a collaborative model. Dr. Reddy’s today has become the fastest Indian company to reach the US$2-billion mark in world wide sales. His company is one of the most respected international specialty pharma companies in the world with over three-fourths of its sales coming from international markets. His net worth is US $1.39 billion.
9.
Glenn Saldanha, Chairman and managing director of Glenmark propelled his company to be among the rapidly growing specialty pharma companies right from the day he joined as a director in 1998. Today, Glenmark is among the top 100 pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms in the world with total revenues of over US $820 million, three-fourths of which, come from international sales and out-licensing. His net worth is US $1.03
What is common among all these wealth creators? They all have a very clear vision about the future and can see it before it arrives. They are all driven by a powerful ambition of leading their companies into the big league. They are focused and determined to achieve their dreams. A careful study of their game plans reveals these simple and eternal principles of success.
