Bhuma Srivastav & Bhupesh Bhandari: Time-tested molecule

BACKSTAGE

The word was out last week that Teva of Israel, the largest generic pharmaceuticals company in the world, had hired Davinder Singh Brar to advise it on its India strategy.

The company is known to be in talks with several Indian companies to acquire a stake with the clear intention of leveraging India's strengths in generics. And for that, it has chosen Brar, widely recognised as the finest man in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.

On his part, Brar neither denies nor confirms the reports, though his close friends disclose he has signed on the dotted line. But that is the way Brar's career path has been, brilliant but controversial.

After studying business management in Delhi University, Brar had joined ACC in Mumbai. But his parents, who lived in Chandigarh, wanted him to be close to them. When they mentioned this to their spiritual guru, the Maharaj of the Radhasoami Satsang at Beas in Punjab, he asked his disciple and son-in-law, Parvinder Singh of Ranbaxy, to fix the problem. Singh met Brar in Mumbai and offered him a job at Ranbaxy. Brar took the offer and relocated to Delhi in 1976.

Over the next 20 years, Singh and Brar together built the most formidable pharmaceutical empire in India. From an obscure company functioning out of a cramped office in the Okhla industrial area, Ranbaxy became a truly multinational pharmaceutical company with operations all around the world.

Brar's first brush with controversy happened in 1993 when Singh's father, Bhai Mohan Singh, accused his son of jettisoning the family's interests at the behest of a handful of executives.

As Brar had risen over all others to become the heir apparent of Singh, he had to bear the brunt of Bhai Mohan Singh's attack. At one time, it seemed Bhai Mohan Singh would win the battle and Brar would be ousted. But the tables turned eventually and Singh won the boardroom battle. In the bargain, Brar's stature grew within Ranbaxy.

But, before he could reach the top, Brar dropped a bombshell. In 1997, at a Ranbaxy party in Delhi, he announced that he would leave the company in 1999, the year he turned 50. The same year, Singh was detected with cancer. Despite the best medical attention in the world being rushed to him, everybody knew that it was just a matter of time before he died. Though his friend and mentor was dying, Brar was adamant on calling it quits in 1999.

But things took a turn for the better in April 1999. At a brainstorming of key Ranbaxy functionaries at Shimla, management guru Sumantra Ghoshal finally confronted Brar. "The lives of all these people and their families depend on you. You can't go," he is said to have told Brar. Finally, Brar gave in. The next month, Singh presented him to Ranbaxy shareholders as the CEO of the company. Within weeks, Singh was dead.

Over the next few years, Brar grew Ranbaxy to a billion-dollar company. Its operations had spread to every corner of the globe. In 2002, he came up with the Garuda Vision for Ranbaxy. It set a target of $ 5 billion in sales for the company by 2012, with at least 40 per cent of the turnover coming from proprietary products.

In December 2003, Brar created shock waves one more time when he announced that he would be stepping down in July 2004. It was, he said, time for him to do something on his own and something he could grow for his two college-going sons. Once his innings at Ranbaxy got over, Brar set up Davix Corporation to nurture new pharmaceutical ventures in the country. Its maiden investment was in the GMR group's pharmaceutical business.

Now there is the Teva assignment. The cost of doing research, be it for new drugs or for generic drugs, is rising in the West, even as productivity is headed southwards. At the same time, Indian scientists have earned a name for themselves, especially in process chemistry.

The patent laws that existed till January 1, 2005, permitted Indian companies to produce any drug under the sun so long as a non-infringing process was used. This has given a large number of Indian companies unique capabilities in the filed of generics. This is what Teva is interested in. And this is where Brar comes in.