Yusuf Hamied

Yusuf Khwaja Hamied (born 25 July 1936) is a billionaire Indian scientist and businessman, the chairman of Cipla, a generic pharmaceuticals company founded by his father Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935.^[1]

Early life

Hamied was raised in Bombay. His Indian Muslim father and Russophone Jewish mother met in pre-war Berlin, where they were graduate students. Hamied was educated at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay. He holds a PhD in chemistry from Christ's College, Cambridge. He uses his chemistry notebooks from Cambridge when he develops new syntheses of drugs.^[2]

Career

Hamied is best known outside India for defying large Western pharmaceutical companies in order to provide generic AIDS drugs and treatments for other ailments primarily affecting people in poor countries.^[3] Hamied has led efforts to eradicate AIDS in the developing world and to give patients life-saving medicines regardless of their ability to pay,^[4] and has been characterized as a modern-day Robin Hood figure^[5][6][7][8] as a result.

Hamied stated, "I don't want to make money off these diseases which cause the whole fabric of society to crumble". ^[9]

In September 2011, in a piece about how he was trying to radically lower costs of biotech drugs for cancer, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases, The New York Times wrote of Hamied:

Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of the Indian drug giant Cipla Ltd., electrified the global health community a decade ago when he said he could produce cocktails of AIDS medicines for $1 per day — a fraction of the price charged by branded pharmaceutical companies. That price has since fallen to 20 cents per day, and more than six million people in the developing world now receive treatment, up from little more than 2,000 in 2001.^[10]

Hamied has also been influential in pioneering development of multi-drug combination pills (also known as fixed-dose combinations, or FDCs), notably for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), asthma and other ailments chiefly affecting developing countries, as well as development of pediatric formulations of drugs, especially those benefiting children in poor settings.^[11] These innovations have greatly expanded access to medicine and increased drug safety by ensuring proper dosages are taken. He is also highly regarded for his role in expanding the production of bulk drugs and "active pharmaceutical ingredients" (APIs, the active chemical components in medicines) in India.^[12]

In 2009 the Yusuf Hamied Centre was opened at Christ's College, Cambridge.^[13][14] The centre features a bronze portrait bust of Hamied by fellow Christ's College alumnus, Anthony Smith.^[15]

Hamied has been the subject of in-depth profiles in The New York Times, Time magazine, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Economist, the Financial Times, The Times (London), Corriere della Sera, Der Spiegel, Wired and numerous other leading publications, as well as on television outlets such as ABC News, the BBC, CNN and CBS' 60 Minutes.^[16]

In February 2013, Hamied announced his retirement plans from Cipla after remaining managing director of the company for 52 years. ^[17] At the time, he was listed as the 28th richest Indian by Forbes magazine.^[18]

Awards and recognition

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour by Government of India in 2005.^[19]

Hamied was awarded the 'CNN-IBN Indian of the Year' in the category of business by CNN-IBN in 2012 for "for taking on multinational pharma companies and making some of the essential drugs more affordable to the masses in the developing countries. In late 2013, he was also named one of the India's "25 Greatest Global Living Legends" by news broadcaster NDTV.^[20][21] He was also recently interviewed for the Creating Emerging Markets project at the Harvard Business School, discussing at length his strategies to provide AIDS treatments and other drugs to help treat poor people in the developing world.^[22][23]

Media

Hamied's role in the battle for mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa is portrayed in the documentary Fire in the Blood (2013 film).^[24] In its review of the film, India Today noted that "the story of Yusuf Hamied will make every Indian proud as he was the only man who decided to walk against the tide and sell drugs to save lives without focusing on profits."^[25]

Personal life

Yusuf Hamied is married to Farida.^[26] His niece, Samina Vaziralli, daughter of his younger brother, M. K. Hamied, Cipla's non-executive vice-chairman, is part of the next generation of leadership at Cipla.^[27]

As of January 2016, he has a net worth of US$1.45 billion.^[18]

References