How technocrats, patents forged India’s pharma story | Ahmedabad News – The Times of India

In 1971, sales of India’s Top 30 pharmaceutical firms clocked Rs 1,310 million. Twenty-four of these companies, headquartered abroad, commanded 70% of the market share. In 2024, 53 years later, sales touched Rs 1,661.7 billion for Top 30 firms. This time, six foreign firms held 15% of the market share.This turnaround not only made India a pharma powerhouse, having the third-largest manufacturing base supplying 20% of the world’s generic medicines, but also presented the ‘technocrat entrepreneurship’ model, said Prof Chinmay Tumbe, a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA). He was speaking on the theme, ‘Technocratic Entrepreneurship, Patent Laws and Big Business in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (1920-2025)’ at the fourth International Conference on Indian Business and Economic History held on Friday. He said work on ongoing to chronicle the sector’s growth through the project, India Pharma Archives, which includes important documents and oral history received from 60 pioneers of the field, including founders, CEOs, and chairmen. This, Prof Tumbe said, is the first such initiative for the country and added that the archives will soon be accessible to the public. On technocratic entrepreneurship, the professor cited examples of industry pioneers like P C Ray, Vikram Sarabhai, Yusuf Hamied and K Anji Reddy, saying all held doctorates, and showed business acumen along with technical know-how.Prof Tumbe called The Patents Act, 1970, as the cornerstone of Indian pharma sector’s boom. It opened avenues for reverse engineering and generic medicines. “But India was not alone in the initiative. Several other countries had such laws in place or passed such laws during a similar timeframe. What made the Indian story compelling was first-generation entrepreneurship in the sector,” he said.In the context of Gujarat, Prof Tumbe said that Alembic in Vadodara remained among the Top 30 from 1920 to 2024, and that many state-based pharmaceutical firms now have second or the third generation managing the business.