Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories: Challenges ahead for Erez Israeli

DRL was founded in 1984 by visionary entrepreneur and scientist Dr. Kallam Anji Reddy and his associates with a view to ‘to bring new molecules into the country at a price the common man can afford’ . On commencement, the company started to make its first Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) called Methyldopa, which was exported to the American pharmaceutical company, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) (the manufacturer of Aldomet). Soon, the company started to export Methyldopa to West Germany, Yugoslavia, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Canada. This initial success encouraged the company to start developing formulations . In the early 1990s, DRL became the first Indian pharmaceutical company to export the drugs Norfloxacin and Ciprofloxacin to Europe and to the Far East. Shortly after, it started to manufacture a new bulk drug called Omeprazole that was marketed under the brand name ‘Omez’. This drug metamorphosed into the company’s first INR 1 billion product...