All About Pharmaceutical Giants: Cipla

                                                        

Cipla Limited is a prominent Indian pharmaceutical company, best-known outside its home country for manufacturing low-cost anti-AIDS drugs for HIV-positive patients in developing countries was founded in 1935 by Dr Khwaja Abdul Hamied. In 1935, he set up The Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratories, which came to be popularly known as Cipla. He gave the company all his patent and proprietary formulas for several drugs and medicines, without charging any royalty. On August 17, 1935, Cipla was registered as a public limited company with an authorised capital of Rs 6 lakhs.

The search for suitable premises ended at 289, Bellasis Road (the present corporate office) where a small bungalow with a few rooms was taken on lease for 20 years for Rs 350 a month.

Cipla was officially opened on September 22, 1937 when the first products were ready for the market. The Sunday Standard wrote: "The birth of Cipla which was launched into the world by Dr K A Hamied will be a red letter day in the annals of Bombay Industries. The first city in India can now boast of a concern, which will supersede all existing firms in the magnitude of its operations. India has lagged behind in the march of science but she is now awakening from her lethargy. The new company has mapped out an ambitious programme and with intelligent direction and skilful production bids fair to establish a great reputation in the East."

In 1942, Dr Hamied's blueprint for a technical industrial research institute was accepted by the government and led to the birth of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which is today the apex research body in the country.

In 1944, the company bought the premises at Bombay Central and decided to put up a "first class modern pharmaceutical works and laboratory." It was also decided to acquire land and buildings at Vikhroli. With severe import restrictions hampering production, the company decided to commence manufacturing the basic chemicals required for pharmaceuticals.

In 1946, Cipla's product for hypertension, Serpinoid , was exported to the American Roland Corporation, to the tune of Rs 8 lakhs. Five years later, the company entered into an agreement with a Swiss firm for manufacturing foromycene.

Dr Yusuf Hamied, the founder's son, returned with a doctorate in chemistry from Cambridge and joined Cipla as an officer in charge of research and development in 1960.

In 1961, the Vikhroli factory started manufacturing diosgenin. This heralded the manufacture of several steroids and hormones derived from diosgenin.

The World’s Largest ARV Drug Manufacturer

Cipla is the world's largest manufacturer of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to fight HIV/AIDS, as measured by units produced and distributed (multinational brand-name drugs are much more expensive, so in money terms Cipla medicines are probably somewhere down the list). Roughly 40 percent of HIV/AIDS patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy worldwide take Cipla drugs.

In February, 2001, Cipla stunned the HIV/AIDS and public health communities by announcing it would make its triple cocktail of antiretroviral drugs available in developing countries for $350 per patient per year, a tiny fraction of the prices prevailing internationally at the time.

Cipla also pioneered a three-in-one tablet called Triomune containing a fixed-dose combination (FDC) of three ARVs (Lamivudine, stavudine and Nevirapine), something difficult elsewhere because the three patents were held by different companies. Another popular fixed-dose combination is produced under the name Duovir-N. This contains Lamivudine, Zidovudine and Nevirapine. Cipla manufactures generic versions of many of the most commonly prescribed anti-retroviral medication in the market, and is a highly capable manufacturer in its own right. This innovation made ARVs far more accessible and easy-to-take for patients everywhere, but particularly in poor- and middle-income countries, where the vast majority of people on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) now take such combination pills.

Cipla was among the first companies to register AIDS drugs under the US relief program PEPFAR. It has also been a major supplier of ARVs to the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative, which has negotiated low-cost drug supplies for numerous developing countries.

Milestones

• 1935

Dr K A Hamied sets up "The Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd." in a rented bungalow, at Bombay Central.

• 1941

As the Second World War cuts off drug supplies, the company starts producing fine chemicals, dedicating all its facilities for the war effort.

• 1952

Sets up first research division for attaining self-sufficiency in technological development.

• 1960

Starts operations at second plant at Vikhroli, Mumbai, producing fine chemicals with special emphasis on natural products.

• 1968

Cipla manufactures ampicillin for the first time in the country.

• 1972

Starts Agricultural Research Division at Bangalore, for scientific cultivation of medicinal plants.

• 1976

Cipla launches medicinal aerosols for asthma.

• 1980

Wins Chemexcil Award for Excellence for exports.

• 1982

Fourth factory begins operations at Patalganga, Maharashtra.

• 1984

Develops anti-cancer drugs, vinblastine and vincristine in collaboration with the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Wins Sir P C Ray Award for developing inhouse technology for indigenous manufacture of a number of basic drugs.

• 1985

US FDA approves Cipla's bulk drug manufacturing facilities.

• 1988

Cipla wins National Award for Successful Commercialization of Publicly Funded R&D.

• 1991

Lauches etoposide, a breakthrough in cancer chemotherapy, in association with Indian Institute of Chemical Technology. The company pioneers the manufacture of the antiretroviral drug, zidovudine, in technological collaboration with Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.

• 1994

Cipla's fifth factory begins commercial production at Kurkumbh, Maharashtra.

• 1997

Launches transparent Rotahaler, the world's first such dry powder inhaler device now patented by Cipla in India and abroad. The palliative cancer care centre set up by the Cipla Foundation, begins offering free services at Warje, near Pune.

• 1998

Launches lamivudine, becoming one of the few companies in the world to offer all three component drugs of retroviral combination therapy (zidovudine and stavudine already launched).

• 1999

Launches Nevirapine, antiretroviral drug, used to prevent the transmission of AIDS from mother to child.

• 2000

Cipla became the first company, outside the USA and Europe to launch CFC-free inhalers – ten years before the deadline to phase out use of CFC in medicinal products.

• 2002

Four state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities set up in Goa in a record time of less than twelve months.

• 2003

Launches TIOVA (Tiotropium bromide), a novel inhaled, long-acting anticholinergic bronchodilator that is employed as a once-daily maintenance treatment for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Commissioned second phase of manufacturing operations at Goa.

• 2005

Set-up state-of-the-art facility for manufacture of formulations at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

• 2007

Set-up state-of-the-art facility for manufacture of formulations at Sikkim.

• 2010

Set up state-of-the-art facility for manufacture of formulations at Indore.