When it comes to cheap medicines, a different image of India emerges in the world. A country that, instead of making profit in medicines, insists that their cost should be minimum, so that they can be available even to the world’s poorest population. Recently, even during the Kovid epidemic, India had performed this role, for which the country was praised from all forums. Do you know the name of the company which has given the philosophy of economy instead of profit in the Indian pharmaceutical industry? Right now a news is coming about that company that it is going to be sold.
Cipla started before independence
It is about India’s oldest pharmaceutical company, Whose name is Cipla. Surely you will be well aware of this name. Its story is very interesting. It was published in the year 1935 as The Chemical, Industrial & was started under the name of Pharmaceutical Laboratories. It was started by Khwaja Abdul Hameed, who was a chemist and entrepreneur.
Gandhi, Nehru, Subhash… all were fans
That was the era of India’s slavery. Khwaja Hameed was working as a chemist in Germany. For the West, all the colonial countries including India used to have the status of third world. It is natural that the pharmaceutical companies of the West did not take special care of India and the people living in a country like India. Medicines were not available to the large population. At the same time, Khwaja Hameed came from Germany and formed an indigenous pharmaceutical company in India. His contribution can be understood from the fact that from Mahatma Gandhi himself to Pandit Nehru and Netaji Subhash had become admirers of Cipla. Khwaja Hameed challenged the dominance of foreign companies in the matter of medicines and raised the demand for indigenous and cheap. There are many wonderful things. India is today called the drug capital of the world. Do you know why… Because the pharmaceutical companies of India focus on making medicines for the common people. Indian companies make generic medicines, which even the poor population of the world can buy, and this generic revolution also started from Cipla itself. Yusuf Khwaja Hameed took over the work of Cipla after Khwaja Abdul Hameed. The year was 1972. Cipla has prepared a generic version of Propranolol, a drug for the treatment of heart diseases. Imperial Chemical Industries, the British company that invented the drug, sued Cipla.
Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister at that time. Yusuf Hameed met the Prime Minister regarding the matter and all he asked was whether millions of Indians should not get this life-saving drug just because the people who invented it did not like the color of our skin? What was it then, India changed the patent law. This opened the way for generic ie cheap medicines.
Multinational companies have been defeated many times
Cipla’s face-to-face competition with multinational companies is not only this. Around the year 2000, Cipla once again defeated multinational companies. AIDS was wreaking havoc in Africa. Foreign companies were making AIDS medicines, which were very expensive. Cipla took entry and also made generic medicine for AIDS. The medicines which big companies were selling for $12,000, Cipla made it available for $300. Because of these reasons, well-known multinational companies had given the tag of copycat to Cipla. Let’s talk about the present, which is not right… especially from the emotional point of view. It is reported that the promoters of Cipla are going to sell their entire stake to foreign investment firm Blackstone. Presently the business of Cipla is being handled by Yusuf Hameed’s niece Sameena. The family has 33.47 per cent stake in Cipla, which is set to be sold. According to reports, the world’s largest private equity firm Blackstone may make the biggest bid for Cipla’s 33.47 per cent stake. If this happens, then the company which is promoting Swadeshi will itself become foreign.
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