#hamied

Yusuf Hamied is the non-executive chairman of $2 billion (revenue) generics maker Cipla, known for its portfolio of affordable generic drugs, such as for HIV/AIDS. The company appointed a new CEO and named Hamied’s niece Samina Vaziralli as executive vice chairman last September. Cipla is expanding overseas, notably in South Africa, where it is building a new $90 million plant to make bio-similar drugs in Durban. Cipla was also one of a group of companies that successfully bid for drugs divested by Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals. He inherited the company in 1972 from his father Khwaja Abdul Hamied, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, who founded Cipla in Mumbai in 1935 with the aim of making India self-sufficient in essential medicines.