Just The Remedy

Under Vaziralli’s guidance, Indian drug major Cipla gets a shot in the arm from US acquisitions

- Anuradha Raghunathan

In 2011, Samina Vaziralli, a third-generation scion at Cipla, was being groomed for succession with her younger brother. Four years later, he stepped out, leaving her to take on the legacy of India’s third-largest pharma company.

By 2016 Vaziralli had moved to the highest executive post, vice chairman, at the Mumbai outfit and charted an expansion course encompassing India, the US and South Africa, with China and Brazil also in her sights. That included spearheading the company’s entry into the US in 2015 through the acquisition of two generic-drug makers valued at a total of $550 million.

Until then, Cipla—which makes drugs to treat respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as cancer, malaria and Aids—had worked with partners in the US, handling R&D and manufacturing but selling the drugs under its partners’ labels. “The value was all in the front end, and we wanted to own the front end,” says Vaziralli. “We had the capability and the technology. So we decided to launch ourselves.”