Caring is our Calling: The beginning of Cipla Story

A doctor’s appointment can be a long wait. In the process of waiting for the turn, one cannot help but notice the various advertisements from the medicine companies. One such poster will definitely read “Caring for Life”. This is the tagline of none other than the pharma giant Cipla.

The headquarters of Cipla in Mumbai. Image Source: IndiaCSR.

C-I-P-L-A is a five-letter word. But the value of this word in the Indian economy is more than just that. The Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratories (CIPLA), as it reads in the papers, is one of the largest pharmaceuticals in the global market. They cater to more than 80 countries with about 1500 products.

Cipla brought a revolution in Indian laws as early as the 1960s. Before that, the Indian patent laws were quite rigid, which made India completely dependent on foreign-based companies for medicinal support. The company pressured the government of India to allow the patent of certain drugs with formulas to be manufactured within the country. This made India the sole producer of many drugs that could be easily affordable for patients. These drugs turned out to be a boon for not only the country, but also these drugs could be exported to other third-world nations.

Founded by a chemist named Khwaja Abdul Hamied in 1935, the company presently has 34 manufacturing units located in 8 different locations in India. The headquarters of the company is in Mumbai, the city of dreams, and the birth of Cipla is one such dream that the city manifested its energy to turn into a success story.

It all started when India was still under the British Raj. The Indian National Congress had a foolproof plan of making India self-sufficient so that India could thrive without any support from other nations. For this, the congress workers were busy at the grass root level to educate the country's people to take up activities that do not make them dependent on the British. They were asked to boycott British dominant products- be it goods, officers or educational institutions.

Khwaja Abdul Hamied, a 25-year-old boy who was working at the Jamia Millia Islamia as a reader in Chemistry, wanted to go abroad for higher studies. He did not have money for that. He did not even have a passport! But, he was sure that he would go for further studies in a foreign nation. And this was his first wish which came true.

He went to Germany and got his PhD. On returning to India, he could have easily chosen academics as his profession. But this is not what he wanted. He had plans not only for himself but for the country as a whole. He noticed that during the First World War, all the nations, including the victors, were heavily dependent on the drugs manufactured by the Germans. Not only this, Germany was the undisputed leader in manufacturing and exporting materials like synthetic dyes, pharmaceuticals, explosives, and other chemical products, for which they had an upper hand in the global market even after the war ended.

This gave Hamied an idea. India being self-reliant was a great initiative to suppress British supremacy. But India should also become self-reliant to the extent that it should not be dependent on any other country. The field of chemicals was something that India did not venture into at that moment. The only source that the Britishers used was the company established by Prafulla Chandra Ray, and it only functioned during the war period. Hameid was now fully devoted to creating a chemical company that would be solely Indian and help in India’s freedom struggle.

After a lot of effort, in 1935, Hamied ventured into his laboratory in Bombay, which was named “The Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratories”, which can be easily assorted to the name Cipla. This was the ten years journey of Hameid- from his dream of getting a degree from some foreign university to the foundation of the pharma giant Cipla.

In present times, Cipla has begun producing drugs for HIV/AIDS which is helping nations globally. The manufacture of this generic form of the drug has helped a large number of poor nations in their combat to eradicate and stagnate the HIV virus. Moreover, the Cipla labs have been busy trying to find drugs for cancer. We can only be hopeful for a better future. And what more do we need when we have our very own brand Cipla protecting us with its shield?

The founder of the company K.A. Hamied with Gandhi. Image Source: Twitter.