Seven years after founding and building LifeCell International, a pioneer in stem-cell research and cord blood-banking services in the country, S Abhaya Kumar is back with the family business, Shasun Pharmaceuticals (earlier Shasun Chemicals & Drugs). Kumar, 58, was founder director of Shasun, which is currently at around Rs 1,000 crore, and was involved in making the company a major producer of painkiller drug ibuprofen, ranitidine and nizatidine until 2004 with brothers S Devendra and S Vimal Kumar.
Although born to a Rajasthani Jain family, Abhaya was born in Chennai. “I am more accustomed to Tamil culture,” Kumar says. Not surprisingly, friends affectionately call him ‘Marwari Papan’ (Papan is a respectful synonym for Tamil Iyengar Brahmin).
Completing his BTech in Chemical Engineering from A C College of Technology, Chennai, in 1975, Kumar wanted to set up a chemical factory. “It was my father's friend R Thyagarajan, founder-chairman of the Shriram Group, who advised me to get into pharmaceuticals,” he says.
However, in 2004 when the family decided to appoint professionals to handle operations, Kumar jokingly says, “I became jobless.” With his pharma background, he and son Mayur started LifeCell in collaboration with Cryocell International of the US.
Kumar also runs Sri Shankarlal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College for Women in T Nagar, Chennai, and is the director of animation studio Imageworks India, a JV with Sony Imageworks. Nevertheless, he finds time for horse riding, flying and rowing. But his real passion is entrepreneurship — and Kumar has been recipient of a host of awards.
