Yusuf Hamied Biography 
Yusuf Hamied is a leading Indian scientist and chairman of Cipla, India’s first pharmaceutical company. It was founded by his father Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935 and Yusuf headed the company for 52 long years. Yusuf Hamied was awarded the 'CNN-IBN Indian of the Year' in the category of business by CNN-IBN in 2012. He is a recipient of Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award. Indian government honoured him with this award in the year 2005. The award-winning documentary Fire in the Blood (2013) was made on the criticial role played by Hamied in mass antiretroviral treatment in Africa.
Yusuf was born in 1936 in Vilnius, Lithuania. He was brought up in Mumbai. His mother was a Lithuanian Jewish socialist who met his father at Germany. Both were studying in Germany when they got married. Yusuf schooled at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai and completed Ph.D. in chemistry from Christ's College, Cambridge. Now too, he refers his old Chemistry books at Cambridge to develop a new drug. Yuku was his pet name at school. Hamied is fond of Western classical music and famous music conductor Zubin Mehta is his friend since childhood days.
Now Hamied is a leading entrepreneur known worldwide. He became internationally popular for defying large Western pharmaceutical companies to provide generic AIDS drugs and treatments for other ailments, primarily affecting poor nations worldwide. His effort to eradicate AIDS in the developing world is one of known social services. He also provides services and medicine to poor patients, even if they are not able to pay. He tried to develop lower costs of biotech drugs for cancer, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases. In 2013 February Hamied has announced to step down as managing director of Cipla.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 06, 2014
