Ajay Harinath Singh Greatest Brand Leader 2018-2019

up with a super speciality hospital in
Bangalore, the Wockhardt Hospital and
Heart Institute. This was followed by the
incorporation of Wockhardt International
Limited for importing and exporting
pharmaceutical products.
With the onset of New Economic Policy
of 1991 and then the SEBI Act of 1992, he
announced his decision to go public, and
by December 5 managed to raise INR 675
million, while aiming for INR 580 million.
Wockhardt became the first pharma
company in India to go in for a public issue
after the liberalization in 1991. With a
robust performance, between June 1989
and June 1993 Wockhardt’s income had
risen by 187% and profits before tax had
grown by 385%.
With the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas of
January 2003, Indian companies were
allowed to make overseas investments up
to 100% of their net worth, and within a few
months Dr. Khorakiwala acquired the UKbased
CP Pharmaceuticals. However, much
before that in 1998, Wockhardt had already
become the first Indian pharmaceutical
company to buy a British pharma company
by acquiring Wallis Laboratories. Later,
he acquired Morton Grove in the US and
Pinewood in Ireland.
Building on Wockhardt’s strengths
in areas beyond its existing synthetic,
chemistry-based pharmaceutical business,
Dr. Khorakiwala explored, entered and
expanded operations in a range of new
areas. By 2008, he was operating the
second-largest private hospital chain after
Apollo Hospitals.
Zealously working on approval of new
chemical entities, he has initiated several
Phase III clinical trials in the US and Europe
– having completed Phase I & Phase II
studies – which are likely to be completed
and approved by end 2020 or early 2021.
Back to the Society
Dr. Khorakiwala established Wockhardt
Foundation in 2008, which employs
modern business practices. Through its
flagship programme, Mobile 1000, it aims
at operating a thousand mobile health vans
in rural India, administering free primary
healthcare to 25 million Indians every year.
Through its Pronto Toilets programme,
it aims to construct more than 60,000
household toilets in Odisha. Other
initiatives include health centres, Little
Hearts, Pronto Bio Toilets, e-learning,
Khel Khel Mein, the Wockhardt Skills
Development Institute, SHUDHU water
purification tablets, the Swachh the Bharat
recycle machine and the Adarsh Gram
Yojna.
An ever-optimist, Dr. Khorakiwala
exhorts his fellow entrepreneurs and
Indians, “We are on the threshold of a new
phase in the development of the Indian
pharmaceutical industry. For the Indian
pharmaceutical and biotechnological
industry, the best is yet to come!”
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