Yusuf Hamied | |
|---|---|
 Hamied on a 2025 stamp of India | |
| Born | (1936-07-25)25 July 1936 (age 89) |
| Education | Christ's College, Cambridge |
| Title | Chairman,Cipla |
| Successor | M. K. Hamied |
| Spouse | Farida |
| Children | none |
| Parent(s) | Khwaja Abdul Hamied (father) Luba Derczanska (mother) |
| Awards | Padma Bhushan |
Yusuf Khwaja Hamied (born 25 July 1936) is an Indian scientist,billionaire businessman and the chairman ofCipla, a genericpharmaceuticals company founded by his fatherKhwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935.[1] He is also an elected fellow of theIndian National Science Academy.[2]
Hamied was born inVilnius, then Poland, now Lithuania, and raised inBombay (nowMumbai). His Indian Muslim father andRussophone Lithuanian Jewish mother, Luba Derczanska[3] met in pre-war Berlin, where they were university students. Hamied was educated at theCathedral and John Connon School andSt. Xavier's College, Mumbai.[4] He went to England in 1954, and earned a BA in chemistry in 1957, followed by a PhD, all fromChrist's College, Cambridge.[5] He uses his chemistry notebooks from Cambridge when he develops new syntheses of drugs.[6]
Hamied is best known outside India for defying large Westernpharmaceutical companies in order to providegenericAIDS drugs and treatments for other ailments primarily affecting people in poor countries.[7] Hamied has led efforts to eradicateAIDS in the developing world and to give patients life-saving medicines regardless of their ability to pay,[8] and has been characterized as a modern-dayRobin Hood.[9][10][11][12]
In 1961, Hamied founded theIndian Drug Manufacturers Association, which lobbied for reform to Indian patent law through the 1970Indian Patents Act. Unlike British patent law, this act only allowed drug manufacturing processes to be patented, not molecules themselves.[13] Hamied stated, "I don't want to make money off these diseases which cause the whole fabric of society to crumble".[14] In September 2011, in a piece about how he was trying to radically lower costs of biotech drugs for cancer,diabetes and othernoncommunicable 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.[15]
Hamied has also been influential in pioneering the development of multi-drug combination pills (also known asfixed-dose combinations, or FDCs), notably forHIV/AIDS,tuberculosis (TB),asthma and other ailments chiefly affecting developing countries, as well as the development of pediatric formulations of drugs, especially those benefiting children in poor settings.[16] 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.[17]
Hamied has been a major benefactor to Cambridge. In 2009 the Yusuf Hamied Centre was opened at Christ's College.[18][19] The centre features a bronze portrait bust of Hamied by fellow Christ's College alumnus,Anthony Smith.[20] The college also has a Todd-Hamied Fellow in chemistry, a post held by ProfessorChris Abell, FRS, from 1986 until his death in October 2020.
In 2018, he donated to the chemistry department at Cambridge to support the1702 Chair of Chemistry, the oldest professorship in the subject there, which has been renamed after him as the Yusuf Hamied 1702 Chair. There is also a Hamied Laboratory for Chemical Synthesis & Catalysis in the department, as well as a Todd-Hamied Seminar Room and Todd-Hamied Laboratory, the last two (and Christ's fellowship) being a tribute also toAlexander, Lord Todd,Nobel laureate inchemistry, whom Hamied described as 'mymentor and guide over the years' since he completed his Ph.D. at Christ's College with Todd.[21] Todd himself was 1702 Professor from 1944 to 1971, as well asMaster of Christ's. In 2020 it was announced that Hamied had made a substantial donation to Cambridge University's chemistry department. This donation led to the foundation of the Hamied Scholars Programme, and the department has subsequently been renamed theYusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry until 2050.[22] Yusuf Hamied and the Cipla Foundation made a Rs 20 crore donation toIISER Pune for a state of the art chemistry facility that would be used in outreach programmes.[23][24]
Hamied has been the subject of in-depth profiles inThe New York Times,Time magazine,The Guardian,Le Monde,The Economist, theFinancial Times,The Times (London),Corriere della Sera,Der Spiegel,Wired and numerous other leading publications, as well as on television outlets such asABC News, theBBC,CNN andCBS'60 Minutes.[25] In February 2013, Hamied announced his retirement plans from Cipla after remaining managing director of the company for 52 years.[26] That year,Forbes magazine included him in its list of richest Indians.[27]
He was awarded thePadma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour byGovernment of India in 2005.[28] Hamied was recognized as theCNN-News18 Indian of the Year in the category of business in 2012 "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 broadcasterNDTV.[29][30] He was also recently interviewed for the Creating Emerging Markets project at theHarvard Business School, discussing at length his strategies to provide AIDS treatments and other drugs to help treat poor people in the developing world.[31][32]
Hamied's role in the battle for mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa is portrayed in the 2013 documentaryFire in the Blood.[33] 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."[34]
Hamied married to Farida and they have no children.[35] They live inLondon andMumbai.[27] His younger brother, M. K. Hamied, is Cipla's non-executive vice-chairman. The latter has three children, including Samina Vaziralli, who is expected to take over leadership of Cipla in the future.[36]
In May 2021,Forbes estimated Hamied's net worth atUS$ 3.3 billion.[27] As per Forbes list of India’s 100 richest tycoons, dated 9 October 2024, Yusuf Hamied & family[37] is ranked 53rd with a net worth of $5.7 Billion.