When Yusuf Hamied defied Big Pharma in the battle against HIV/AIDS
Indian firms had seized upon the opportunity thrown open by the Act to supply cheaper generics to American drug stores. Tapping chemistry skills abundantly available in the country, Indian pharma companies had become experts at reverse engineering off-patent drugs. In the past, Cipla had produced a less than a dollar anti-malaria drug, while Lupin had launched low-cost medication for tuberculosis.
So when Hamied threw down the gauntlet in Brussels, he was speaking with some authority. Cipla and the man who had inherited it from his father in 1972 were no pushovers. Khwaja Abdul Hamied had set up Chemical Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Cipla), in 1935 in response to a call from Mahatma Gandhi.
His son, Yusuf Hamied, a PhD in Chemistry from Cambridge, knew a thing or two about chemical drugs. Despite that, the pharma barons of the world called him a “pirate" and a “thief" and cast aspersions on the quality of Indian generic drugs. For once though, they had to eat humble pie.
Hamied’s offer of February 2001 would galvanize a worldwide move against the refusal of pharma majors to cut their prices for the biggest threat to mankind. Soon, even the big drug companies were forced to lower their prices to more acceptable levels. Cipla wasn’t the biggest beneficiary of the boom in sales of AIDS drugs, but the company had the satisfaction of knowing that its actions had led to millions of lives being saved.
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