Yusuf Hamied

Yusuf Hamied is a Cambridge-educated Chemist and the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Cipla, a large generic pharmaceuticals company founded in 1935 by his father, Khwaja Abdul Hamied. Yusuf became a global celebrity for his role in defying Western multinational pharmaceutical companies in order to provide generic AIDS treatments and other drugs to treat poor people in the developing world.

After completing his doctorate in 1960, Yusuf joined the family company and vowed to break the dominance of foreign multinationals over the Indian pharmaceutical market by developing cheap generic drugs. Yusuf helped persuade the Indian government to change Indian patent law in 1972, permitting medicines to be copied even if they were under international patent, as long as the process was not the same. The law transformed the Indian pharmaceutical industry, enabling his and other companies to grow by manufacturing generic drugs.

In 2001 Yusuf convulsed the global healthcare industry by promising and then delivering a triple drug cocktail, Triomune, that helped fight against HIV and AIDS at prices far lower than those available internationally. Yusuf discusses his subsequent anger when, in 2005, the Indian government brought its patent laws in line with those of the developed world, prohibiting the copying of drugs patented after 1995 without a license and his resentment that he had thereafter “to go with a begging bowl to the multinationals” for licenses. This interview provides not only a personal perspective on how India’s third largest pharmaceutical firm was created, but contributes to the broad debates on the costs and benefits of intellectual property laws, particularly their impact on people who are denied life-saving drugs by their inability to pay for them.

Working for Cipla as Managing Director for nearly 52 years, Yusuf was also the 28th richest Indian during one time. ‘CNN-IBN Indian of the year’ and one among the ’25 greatest global living legends’ were the titles that Yusuf won for his reign in the pharma world majorly for making medicines affordable to the poor. Yusuf was awarded with the civil honorary Padma Bhushan from then president APJ Abdul Kalam in the year 2005 for his fight against AIDS, which he often said was going to be as damaging to the society as a massive earthquake would be, if ignored.

Yusuf earned his Bachelor's degree (1956), Master's degree (1957) and Ph.D. (1960) in Chemistry from University of Cambridge.

Yusuf Hamied is the Chairman of the Board at Cipla, based in India, Asia. With a background in Biotechnology, Yusuf Hamied has a rich history of leadership and innovation. Yusuf Hamied studied Bachelor's Chemistry @ University of Cambridge. Explore their detailed professional journey, key connections, and contributions to the industry on our platform.