The India story: The journey to becoming the 'pharmacy of the world'

Critical tweaks in laws, spirit of enterprise and the pandemic brought about this transition. Tech and innovation will now define the industry's future

To get a sense of where India’s pharmaceutical industry was 25 years ago and how far it has come, we need to turn the clock back to the 1970s, when Indira Gandhi, the prime minister then, is said to have received a message from the scientist Yusuf Hamied, who is now the non-executive chairman of Cipla. Hamid asked her: Should Indians be denied a lifesaving drug (propranolol, a cardiac drug) because the inventor “does not like the colour of our skin”? 

 

What followed is today part of India’s corporate folklore: The country’s patent laws were changed almost overnight. This shift