In the giving phase of life

John P Matthew
25 September 2003

Novartis India vice-chairman and MD Ranjit Shahani discusses the issues confronting the Indian pharmaceuticals industry today

Mumbai: Ranjit Shahani, who has built his career in the chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries, is a technocrat with an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and holds an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

After a long stint at the ICI group in India and the UK (where he oversaw the British multinational's Asia-Pacific operations), he joined Roche Products, as its CEO. Subsequently, Shahani joined Novartis India following the worldwide merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy to create Novartis. At present, Shahani is vice-chairman and managing director of Novartis India.

Shahani is currently president of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India, or OPPI. He spoke to domain-b about the Indian pharma industry and the issues confronting it. Excerpts:

What according to you are the challenges facing multinational drug companies in India? As OPPI's president what steps have you initiated to face these challenges?
First of all, OPPI is not an association of multinationals. It covers all large Indian companies and multinationals that strongly believe in patents. Multinational pharma companies have contributed significantly to the development of the pharma industry in India.