K Raghavendra Rao

Orchid is a first-generation enterprise founded in 1992 by K Raghavendra Rao, who is also the firm's managing director. The Chennai-based pharmaceuticals major, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd, is the youngest pharma firm in India to bag the ISO 9001:2000 certification. With exports spanning more than 75 countries, it is the largest manufacturer-exporter of cephalosporin bulk actives in India and is ranked amongst the top 5 cephalosporinproducers globally.

Born in Chennai, in the year 1958, Mr Raghavendra Rao had been a brilliant student all through his career. He graduated with a Degree in Commerce from Andhra University with a gold medal for being the topper. He pursued post-graduate studies in Management in the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He also acquired Costing (ICWAI) and Company Secretary (ACS) qualifications while in employment making him a highly qualified professional with multiple competencies. After passing out from the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad in 1977 at the age of just 19, K Raghavendra Rao had no plans to be an entrepreneur. He joined Kwality Ice Creams in Mumbai, and within 18 months, he converted one of its manufacturing units in Ahmedabad into a profitable venture. Soon, he found he would not be able to go beyond a certain level in a small company, and joined Ashok Leyland in Chennai. But in no time, he found it too big for his liking. He joined Standard Organics in Hyderabad and that was his first exposure to pharmaceuticals. He joined the company at the age of 25 as a project manager and soon became its vice president, operations. He, along with his team, put up a bulk drug manufacturing plant, a formulation plant and medical diagnostic centres. To realise his dream, he had to have capital. So he went to Oman, and "sold his services for a better capital." His plan was to make some capital, come back to India and start a project. He helped the Oman company diversify into pharmaceuticals, steel and readymade garments. The company whose revenue was less than $2 million rose to $80 million in just four years. In 1993, with 'some' capital, and lots of experience and confidence, Rao came back to India and started Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals in Chennai. "I chose pharma because I thought, as long as people are there, some medicine or the other will be required. Secondly, I felt the versatility of pharma manufacturing enterprise is far greater. It has many-to-one and one-to-many correspondences, which means, with the same centrifuges, reactors and dryers, with their supporting systems in engineering and refrigeration, just by changing the parameters, you can do many different products. These are the two reasons that made me decide the field of operation."

 The next major decision Rao took was to make Orchid a 100 per cent export oriented company. In Rao's opinion, the decision to create an export oriented company had only advantages and no disadvantages. Initially, Rao chose to manufacture bulk drugs and decided to export to four countries in the neighbourhood, including China. The company started off with a capital of Rs 12 crore (Rs 120 million), planning to achieve sales of Rs 28 crore (Rs 280 million), Rs 32 crore (Rs 320 million) and Rs 37 crore (Rs 370 million), respectively in the first three years. What they achieved was far in excess of their own estimates, with sales ringing in at Rs 43 crore (Rs 430 million), Rs 121 crore (Rs 1,210 million) and Rs 192 crore (Rs 1,920 million), respectively. Now after ten years, Orchid's annual sales are at Rs 542 crore (Rs 5,420 million). The company projects a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billon) by 2005. From exporting to just four countries, Orchid has spread its presence into more than 70 countries. Having started with just one product -- cephalosporin -- Orchid now has 20 products to its credit. From five employees, the workforce has grown to more than a 1,000. All in a short span of just 10 years.

The shift from manufacturing bulk drugs to developing their own drugs and formulations did not happen all of a sudden. Rao knew there would be a long gestation period if they started basic research or tried to access a regulated market from day one of the company's inception.

Rao decided to plunge into research only from the year 2000. At the same time, Orchid decided to go to the regulated market with the same bulk drugs they manufactured. The company presented a five-year plan to Schroeder and IFC, Washington. By 2001 and 2002, the entire infrastructure was implemented. By 2003, they started seeing some results. Three reasons for its brilliant success. "One is the choice of product range and focus. Second is the rapid way we have added products. Third, we knew what was in our control, and what was not. What is in our control is, we can add products, we can add markets, etc but what we cannot control is competition and market price. Last but not the least, the quality of the people we have, right from the beginning, has made a big difference in the company." "I would say the pharma sector will do better than information technology. The reason for this belief is not because we are in pharma, but because there is a fundamental difference between how IT operates out of India and how pharma operates out of India. It is services versus products," says Rao. "As long as you come up the value chain in terms of products, the rate of

growth and the actual delivery that you do is much more valuable and non-replicable compared to a service you can provide. It is going to take time but it is going to pay in a much more handsome manner than IT," he says.

Orchid Pharma CMD Shri. K Raghavendra Rao awarded the prestigious 'Padma Shri' Award by the Government of India
Chennai, India | January 27, 2011 Chennai-based global Pharma major Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Orchid) today announced that its Founder Chairman and Managing Director Mr. K Raghavendra Rao has been awarded the prestigious Padma Shri Award by the Government of India for his contribution to the Pharmaceutical Industry. Mr. Rao received prestigious national awards for his entrepreneurship, two of the leading awards being the India Young Business Achiever Award in 1997 and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Manufacturing in 1999. Orchid's CSR initiatives were recognised by the Loyola Institute with the Mother Teresa Award for the Best Corporate Citizen in 2001.

PANKAJ PATEL

Chairman & Managing Director Zydus Cadila

Dynamic and farsighted, Pankaj R. Patel is one of the most successful and highly respected pharma entrepreneurs in India today. With nearly 30 years of experience in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry, Patel combines both research and techno-commercial expertise and has published 50 research papers. As the Chairman and Managing Director of Zydus Cadila, one of India's leading pharmaceutical groups, Pankaj Patel has been the guiding force behind the group's fast tracked growth. It is his vision and leadership that has catapulted Zydus' corporate brand equity by bringing a new direction to Zydus' image equity, creating a strong visibility, enhancing the corporate reputation and fostering goodwill for Zydus. The group was the first to look at building brands in therapy management and creating speciality divisions. Zydus enjoys a leadership position in the key segments of cardiovasculars, gastrointestinals and women's. It has 17 brands that feature amongst the top 300 pharmaceutical brands in India. In 2006, the group featured in the Forbes list of 'Best Under a Billion' company from amongst 200 companies in Asia. Going forward, the group aims to be a leading global healthcare provider with a robust product pipeline and sales of over $1 bn by 2010 and achieve sales of over $3 bn by 2015.

For his innovative business practices that have accelerated Zydus Cadila's growth, Pankaj Patel was declared the 'Pharma Man of the Year' by the Federation of Indian Industry and Economists (FIIE) in 2004. In 2007, The World Pharmaceutical Frontiers' featured Mr. Pankaj Patel in their 'First Pharma 40' list.

Dilip Shanghvi
Dilip S. Shanghvi is the chairman of Sun Pharmaceuticals and has an estimated wealth of $4.44 billion. Dilip Shanghvi, holds a commerce degree from the University of Calcutta. He started Sun Pharmaceuticals in 1983 and it is currently the fifth-largest drugmaker in India. Shanghvi is estimated to be worth $6.1 billion as of 2011 by Forbes, and was ranked as the 13th richest person in India

Life History of Dilip Sanghvi & Family - He was inducted into his fathers small pharma trade business when he was 18 and a commerece undergraduate at Calcutta University. - He borrowed his friends equipment and Rs.10,000 from his father and Sun Pharmaceuticals officially opened for Business. - More than 70% of his companys revenues come from India.

Ernst & Young: Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries wins The Entrepreneur of the year 2010, India
February, 08th 2011 Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd Chairman & Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi was named as the Ernst & Young (E&Y) Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010 on Monday. Mr. Dilip Shanghvi now does on to represent the country at the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the year award in Monte Carlo Monaco in June 2011 He has also won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year award in the Healthcare and Life Sciences category in 2005

Uma R. Javeri
To be a women entrepreneur in a male dominant industry such as Pharmaceutical is not an easy job. Ask Uma R. Javeri, the promoter of S.Zhaveri Pharmakem Pvt. Ltd: from writing official letters at 3 in the morning to traveling 6 months at stretch to get the business-she has done it all. No wonder, she was the only women representative in an International Pharmaceutical Conference of 400 companies in 1988. Why an entrepreneur? Why didn't you pursue a regular job? I guess the latent desire to do things on my own was always there. As a college student, I use to visit my father's office during summer vacation and help him out in business, which he founded in 1951. Even after I got married, I use to design dresses for children and make jewellery boxes. But the real impetus came from the overwhelming desire to provide for the best to my children. Hence in 1983, I joined my father's business, which was into marketing of raw pharmaceutical materials, chemicals, cosmetics and food products. How were starting years like? It was a learning curve. There were two typists and one peon, when I joined the business. We had MNC clients such as H.E Daniel, PPG Industries Inc, and Evonik Rohm GmbH from the early days of our inception. To communicate with our clients we had taken a MTNL number as we didn't have fax machine in office. Every afternoon, I used to go to MTNL office to collect faxes. There was no car waiting for me. I use to travel by trains and buses. At times, I had to wait for four-five hours for a scheduled meeting. Still, I persevered and learned about the trade and products we were marketing. I use to go to customs to clear the consignments, meet clearing agents, collect parcels, travel to different companies to market our products and give presentations, and all this while, tending to my kids and family. How you use to manage both small kids and business at a time? Those were the days! I used to get up at 3AM in the morning, write official letters to be dispatched for the day till 7, drop kids to the school by 8, reach office by 9 and give all the letters to the typist, work in the office and finish meetings, take a break at 12.30 noon to pick-up children from school and drop them home, resume work till evening, and then help children in their homework in the night. Tell us about the challenges you faced in business. In college days, I never took interest in science and was an average student. Now in pharma business, I was decoding polymers, superdisintegrants, phospholipids etc. But my motto was never to give-up. I visited the R&D facilities of my clients in U.S and Germany and taught myself about the products we were selling. Understanding chemicals, however, was still easier than getting accepted as a woman entrepreneur in this male dominated industry. In 1992, Evonik Rohm GmbH, our German client for nearly 40 years, wanted to tack back our agency. They contended that women entrepreneurs are not well accepted in India and I won't be able to give them decent sales from India. I went to Germany to persuade them and was interrogated by a panel of 9 members. All I asked them was to give me a year's time to prove myself. PPG

Industries even fixed a target- USD1million in sales in a year or forget about the agency. I proved myself on both the accounts and outdid their expectations. My husband has been a great support throughout this entrepreneurial journey. Major turning points It took some time for our business wheel to start rolling. We had to wait for six years to bag the first order of a product with new technology (film-coating for tablets) that our firm had developed. Challenges faced in 1992 also motivated me to increase the basket of products and we tied-up with many MNC firms to market their products in India. In 1994, we also started importing huge quantities-from 5kg to5tonnes- of these products. We started stocking these materials to supply to Indian companies and to export it to neighboring countries. Currently, we supply to almost 200customers. In 1999, we also started R&D centre in a 1500sq ft space in Mumbai and after a year opened a new research facility spread over 10,000sq ft in New Mumbai. Recently, we have tied-up with JRS Pharma, a German company, to open a big R&D facility in Khapoli at the outskirts of Mumbai. Tips for budding entrepreneurs Never give up! There will always be ups and downs in career. Be patient and preserve over your dream to turn into a reality.

Dr. Anuj Saxena

Initiated in 1983 , and operational by 1987, Elder Pharmaceuticals was started by Mr Jagdish Saxena. Elder Pharmaceuticals principal activities include the manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceutical brands, surgical and medical devices. Shelcal Elders No.1 brand is one of the top brands in the Indian Pharmaceutical industry. We believe that we are one of the leading players in the pharmaceutical formulation market in India, being a market leader in three therapeutic segments - Womens Healthcare, Wound Care and Nutraceuticals. Elders strategic alliances with a number of international pharmaceutical entities for marketing their products in India and overseas international acquisitions have strengthened and enabled Elder to become a true-global pharmaceutical company. Internationally benchmarked plants Elder manufactures API and formulations across 6 manufacturing plants in India and one in Nepal possessing a capability to manufacture various dosage forms like tablets, capsules, syrups, injectibles, topical creams and ointments. Over the years, Elder upgraded its capacities in line with international standards to cater to the requirements of a wider patient community. Even as it upgraded its facilities, it also invested in capacity expansion through investments in internationally benchmarked greenfield facilities.

Dr. Anuj Saxena is the Managing Director and brain behind Elder Health Care Ltd. This FMCG company which has been marketed, manufactured and distributed brands like Fair One and Fuel deodorant, AM/PM and Tiger Balm, is part of the Elder Group of Companies, a 800 crore enterprise, in existence since 1987. Elder has also been Marketing & distributing products such as JFM (Just for Men) & BeYu cosmetics. Today Elder is ranked 28th according to IMS-ACC 2009 and has collaborations with companies from the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and has an All India marketing operation, with about 12 manufacturing units across India. Elder was also the title sponsor of the Filmfare awards from 2006 to 2008 Being a young entrant in an industry which is teeming with established giants and growing competition Elder Health care has managed to make a mark in this segment and has arrived as a reputed FMCG company. Under the able leadership of Dr Anuj Saxena.Brands "FairOne","Fairone Man" and "Tiger" epitomises this spirit.

Dr. Kallam Anji Reddy

Dr. Kallam Anji Reddy known as Dr. Anji Reddy. He is Chairman of Indias second largest pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy Laboratories. K. Anji Reddy (B.Sc.-Tech in Pharmaceuticals and Fine chemicals from Bombay University and PhD in Chemical Engineering from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, 1969) is the founder Chairman of Dr. Reddys Laboratories Limited (Dr. Reddys). He served in the state-owned Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (1969-75), was founder-Managing Director of Uniloids Ltd (1976-80) and Standard Organics Limited (1980-84), before founding Dr. Reddys in 1984.Under Dr. Anji Reddys leadership, Dr. Reddys has become a pioneer and a trendsetter in the Indian Pharmaceutical industry. It has turned the Indian bulk drug industry from importdependent in mid-80s to self-reliant in mid-90s and finally into the export-oriented industry that it is today. Dr. Reddys has become the first company to take up drug discovery research in India (1993) and has led the industry from being- dubbed as copycats for several years to now being acknowledged as Innovators. Dr. Reddys was listed on the New York Stock Exchange the first non-Japanese Asian pharmaceutical company to list on NYSE in April 2001 (RDY). Dr. Reddy is a serving member of the Prime Ministers Council on Trade & Industry, Government of India, and has been nominated to the Board of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER). He is also a Member of the Board of Governors of Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai. Dr. Reddy chairs the Governing Body of Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation and also serves on the Board of Vision Research Foundation, Chennai.

Naandi Foundation, a not-for-profit development institution that strives for eradication of poverty has Dr. Reddy as its founding father. He is also founder-Chairman of Dr. Reddys Foundation for Human & Social Development, a social arm of Dr. Reddys, which acts as a catalyst of change to achieve sustainable development. Dr. Reddy has been the recipient of several awards and honors. Notable among them are the Sir PC Ray award, twice conferred on Dr. Reddy by Indian Chemical Manufacturers Association (1984, 1992) and the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations (FAPA)s FAPA-Ishidate Award for Pharmaceutical Research in 1998. He was voted Businessman of the Year by Indias leading business magazine Business India in the year 2001. For his pioneering work and introduction of affordable medicine, CHEMTECH Foundation has bestowed on him the Achiever of the Year award in the year 2000 and the Hall of Fame award in 2005, for his Entrepreneurship, Leadership and thrust on Innovation.

Bhai Mohan Singh

Born: December 30, 1917 Achievement: Founder of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd; Awarded with Padma Shri Bhai Mohan Singh can be called as the doyen of pharmaceutical industry in India. He is the founder of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. Bhai Mohan Singh was born on December 30, 1917 in Rawalpindi district. His father Bhai Gyan Chand was a Hindu and his mother Sunder Dai was a Sikh. Bhai Mohan Singh began his business career in the construction business during the Second World War. His firm bagged a contract to build roads in the North East. After Partition, he left Rawalpindi and settled down in New Delhi. Bhai Mohan Singh started business as a moneylender. Ranbaxy was started by his cousins Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh. Ranbaxy's name was a fusion of Ranjit and Gurbax's names. They were distributors for A. Shionogi, a Japanese pharmaceutical company manufacturing vitamins and anti-TB drugs. When Ranbaxy defaulted on a loan, Bhai Mohan Singh bought the company on August 1, 1952, for Rs 2.5 lakh. Bhai Mohan Singh collaborated with Italian pharma company Lapetit Spa and later on bought it. Bhai Mohan Singh made his mark in the pharmaceuticals industry in the late 1960s when he launched his first superbrand, Calmpose. Calmpose was an imitation of Roche's valium. But Roche had not patented it in India. In early 1970s when Indian adopted a regime of process patents in the Bhai Mohan Singh quickly realised that one could make any product in the world through

reverse engineering. He established an R&D facility at Mohali and launched one blockbuster pill after the other, such as Roscillin, Cifran etc. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd went public in 1973. At this time Bhai Mohan Singh introduced his eldest son Parvinder Singh in the company, who later on became the company's Managing Director in 1982. Bhai Mohan Singh also co-founded Max India with his youngest son, Analjit Singh. With liberalisation differences arose between Bhai Mohan Singh and Parvinder Singh over the expansion and professionalisation strategy of Ranbaxy. Subsequently, in 1999 in a boardroom coup of sorts Bhai Mohan Singh was forced to bow down and Parvider took over the company. This broke Bhai Mohan Singh's spirit and he retired from active company affairs. He died on March 27, 2006. Bhai Mohan Singh was a former vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution in civic matters. For his contribution to the industrial development of Punjab, the Punjab Goverment had named an Industrial Township near Ropar after Bhai Mohan Singh.

Khwaja Abdul Hamied (1898-1972)

Today, Indian pharmaceutical industry is the second largest in the world in terms of volumes produced and is among the top six as far as financial turn-over is concerned. This extraordinary success story has two principal authors Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy who founded the Bengal Chemicals in 1901 and Khwaja Abdul Hameid of CIPLA established in 1935. After passing the High School examination from Itawa he joined Agra College for the Intermediate course in Science; on passing this examination he prevailed upon his father to let him join the Leather Training School at Madras as he had developed a strong urge for technical education and running an industry of his own. After one year at Madras, while visiting Allahabad where his elder brother was studying in the Muir central College, the University College, he was struck by the fact that his class-fellows were obtaining higher education while he was merely obtaining Practical Training. This made him abandon the Leather School and join BSc course at Muir Central College Allahabad in 1918. On obtaining a First Class in that course he joined MSc in the same University in 1920. He left for Aligarh which had become the epicenter of that movement and hundreds of students on walking out of the MAO College were accommodated by the Ali Brothers in a makeshift National Muslim University or the Jamia Millia Islamia. Hamied joined that institution as a Reader in Chemistry. He remained in that position till September 1924 and was instrumental in sending Dr Zakir Husain to Germany for his PhD in 1923. He followed Dr Zakir Husain to Berlin next year his mother had to sell two houses to finance his stay. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the Berlin University based on his thesis, Technology of Barium Compounds.

He stayed in Germany for another year gaining practical experience in a number of chemical industries. Breakthroughs He established the Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratory with the acronym CIPLA in 1935 with an initial capital of Rs. 2 lakhs. The company commenced production in 1937 and faced serious difficulties in marketing its products as the doctors had no faith in indigenous formulations. The rising inventories and mounting wage bills brought the company to the brink of closure; it was only the income from sale of Okasa that somehow kept it afloat. The outbreak of the Second World War and the consequent disruption in shipping lanes proved to be a blessing for CIPLA doctors and hospitals had to perforce rely on indigenous products which proved to be equal to the British and European brands in quality. An added impetus was provided by the burgeoning demands of the military. Two major R&D breakthroughs put CIPLA in the league of manufacturers of original molecules and proprietary medicines. One was the ability of CIPLA Chemists to discover an alternative method of synthesizing Nicotinic Acid Dieththylamide whose original brand was Coramine. It was then a very important cardio-respiratory stimulant needed to revive patients in a state of shock. Cormine was manufactured in Germany and its availability was a major issue particularly as it was needed to manage military casualties. The alternative method of manufacture made CIPLA a known name internationally. The other breakthrough that had far reaching consequences was the marketing of serpenid an alkaloid of Rauwolfia serpentine the first herbal remedy in Allopathy for treatment of hypertension. The isolation of this alkaloid was achieved by his friend Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui FRS who was then working in the Aligarh Muslim University. From 1944 onwards the Company has never looked back and the trail it blazed has been followed by thousands of company making India a force to reckon with in the industry. Khwaja Sahibs eldest son Yusuf Hamied, a PhD in Organic Chemistry who joined the Company in 1966 is a distinguished scientist in his own right and has taken it to new heights after the death of his distinguished father.