Lavina Melwani
09/01/2007
Swati Piramal is the force behind Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL), a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical giant with revenues of $611 million last year. Her husband, Ajay, is chairman, but it was Piramal, a physician who trained at the University of Bombay and Harvard School of Public Health, who convinced both of their families, two textile dynasties, to diversify into a line of business that spoke to her own wish to cure disease. In 1988, the couple bought Nicholas Laboratories for $4 million and built the company through global acquisitions and new products. She is the only woman on the scientific advisory board of India’s prime minister and has been a vocal supporter of drug patent protections and better preparation for a bird flu epidemic.
Our company is still a family business in many ways. My daughter went to Stanford and she’s a manager at NPIL. My son just graduated from Penn and he’s also joining the business. My husband is chairman of the group. For anyone who wants to invest in Indian family businesses, it helps to know what dreams fuel the work these families put into their companies. The other thing they should be aware of is that family-owned businesses in India work 24/7. They rarely take a holiday. They’re always on call.
Our dream is to build an iconic Indian company, a global company with an Indian soul. Our other dream is to take an Indian-discovered drug globally—something we’ve discovered and patented that, one day, patients all over the world will use. And, hopefully, it will save lives.
We don’t have the kind of money the Chinese government gives its companies. We don’t have the kind of money that President Bush gives to American scientists. So we look for collaborations with other pharmaceutical companies. We have a big project now with Lilly, researching new drugs in the area of metabolic diseases. If the venture is successful, it could bring in as much as $100 million, plus royalties. Lilly has patented a molecule and done the preclinical work, but it has licensed it to us for the first two phases of clinical trials. If it does not reach Lilly’s benchmark for marketable products, Piramal will take it forward and pay Lilly royalties; but if Lilly takes it forward, it will pay us royalties. So both companies share the risks and the rewards.
We think this project will change the way pharmaceuticals work, because we will be ahead of schedule and reduce the cost. If we can reduce the cost, we also improve the access. Only people at the top of the pyramid can afford drugs today—so there are billions of people in the world who cannot afford them. You have to think differently if you want to succeed.
We have taken over companies in Canada and the UK, and the
principal difference is that they are used to doing things much more slowly and
conforming to more systems and processes. That is good and bad. It’s good
because there’s a system, and it’s bad because it’s too slow and inflexible.
Indians are much more flexible, but sometimes we lack systems and processes.
It’s trying to get the best of both worlds. I feel those companies that can do
that very well will be the successful ones.
Back to Main Article: India at the Crossroads