Talking about the country's first self-made billionaire woman, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's name comes first.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) in Scotland is one of the oldest and most respected academic societies in the world.
Fellows are chosen to join the RSE from the fields of science, arts, education, business, and public life in recognition of their impact on improving the world around them.
Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is among 80 luminaries to be appointed to RSE fellowships this year 2022.
She joins the RSE's current fellowship of around 1,700 Fellows, who are recognized as some of the greatest researchers and practitioners working in or with Scotland.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw declared India's fifth richest woman in the Forbes list, has set this destination on her own.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an Indian woman entrepreneur, technocrat, innovator, and founder of Bangalore-based company Biocon. Biocon is a leading Biotechnology Company.
She is the Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon Limited and Non-Executive Chairperson of Syngene International Limited.
Biocon was the first company in India to manufacture enzymes, exporting medicine to the US and Europe. In 1989, Biocon Limited became India's first biotechnology company.
The company became the first company in the world to develop human insulin by the year 2003, breaking several records one after the other.
Today this company has become a company of more than 50 thousand crore rupees.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has been honored with several awards including the prestigious Padma Shri (1989) and Padma Bhushan (2005) by the Government of India for her pioneering work and significant contributions in biotechnology.
In 2014, she was awarded the Othum Gold Medal for her outstanding contribution to the progress of science and chemistry.
The excellent work done by her in the field of biotechnology has been highly respected in the corporate world. Also, both the Indian industry and Biocon have been recognized globally.
Her name was also included in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people in the world.
She was listed by Forbes as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world.
In 2015, she was listed by Forbes as the 85th most powerful woman in the world. In 2016, she was once again listed as the 77th most powerful woman in the world by "Forbes".
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was also included in the Financial Times list of Top 50 Women in Business.
She was honored with the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 award.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw believes that “Success is the pursuit of a dream with a sense of purpose, trials, and challenges. There is no easy way to achieve success and neither is hard work the only option. Doing things differently is also a mantra for success, one must have the courage to do something different to stand firm.”
Come let's know about the journey of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's wonderful and inspiring life.
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Early Life
India's renowned industrialist Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was born on 23 March 1953 in Bengaluru, Karnataka in a Gujarati family.
Her father's name is Rasendra Majumdar, and he was the head brewmaster at United Breweries. Her mother's name is Yamini Mazumdar.
She completed her education at Bishop Cotton Girls High School in Bangalore. Received B.Sc (Zoology Honours) degree from Bangalore University in the year 1973.
Her father suggested she study fermentation science and train to become a brewmaster, a very non-traditional field for women.
Then she did higher education in 'Malting and Brewing' from Valerate College, Melbourne University Australia. There she was the only girl to receive an education on this subject.
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Personal Life
In the year 1998, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw married John Shaw, a native of Scotland, at the age of 45.
Her husband was the Chairman and Managing Director of Madura Coates from 1991-1998. Presently John Shaw is the Vice-Chairman of 'Biocon Limited'.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an art lover and has a huge collection of paintings and art-related things.
She has also authored a coffee table book, Ale, and Artie, The Story of Beer.
As a civic activist, she has been associated with various programs such as the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) for the development of the city of Bangalore.
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Career
Along with studies, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw worked as an apprentice in Melbourne's Carlton and United Breweries, Brewer, Barrett Brothers, and Burstone.
Then after some time, she worked as a technical advisor at Jupiter Breweries Limited, Kolkata.
From the year 1975-1977, she worked as a Technical Manager at Standard Molding Corporation of Baroda.
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Beginning of Biocon's Journey
After receiving her brewmaster's degree, when she investigated the possibility of pursuing her career in Bangalore or Delhi, she was told that she could not find work as a master brewer in India because it was a male-dominated field.
She then looked for opportunities abroad and was offered a position in Scotland.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in Scotland meets with Leslie Auchincloss, Founder of Biocon Biochemicals Ltd, Cork Ireland.
Auchincloss's company produced enzymes used in the brewing, food-packaging, and textile industries.
He was looking for a partner in India to help her set up an Indian subsidiary to supply papain.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw liked his idea. She took training for a few days and then came back to India.
She started Biocon India in 1978 in the garage of her rented house in Bangalore with the resources available to her and Rs 10,000 lying in the bank.
It was a joint venture, legally the company was 30% foreign owned and 70% of the company was owned by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.
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Challenges Faced
This was the period when start-ups were not very popular. It was very difficult especially for women to start a business.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw faced a lot of difficulties in starting Biocon. Neither any bank was ready to give him money nor anyone wanted to work with him.
But Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, full of determination and self-confidence, did not give up.
She also got the full support of her parents in her journey. In the beginning, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw definitely had to face difficulties, but she faced all the difficulties well on the strength of her ability.
Initially, she faced credibility challenges due to her young age, gender, and untested business model. She faced all the challenges and in limited circumstances took Biocon to a new direction and heights of progress.
She happened to meet a banker at a social event and was able to get her first financial aid.
Adding people to her start-up was also no less than a challenge for her. Their first employee was a retired garage mechanic, and their first unit was a 3,000-square-foot shed.
At that time the most complex instrument in her laboratory was a spectrophotometer. Additionally, she faced the technical challenges associated with trying to build a biotech business in a country with poor infrastructure.
During that time uninterrupted electricity, good-quality water, sterile labs, imported research equipment, and experts with advanced scientific skills were not easily available in India.
The company's initial projects were the extraction of papain and isinglass. Within a year of its inception, Biocon succeeded in manufacturing enzymes in India. At the end of her first year, Majumdar used her earnings to buy a 20-acre property, with plans to expand in the future.
Within a year of Biocon's establishment, the company became the first company in India to manufacture enzymes and export them to the United States and Europe.
In 1989, Biocon became the first biotechnology company in India to receive funding from the US for trademarked technologies.
In the year 1990, she created Biocon's advanced in-house research program based on the trademarked Concentrated Substrate Yeast Technology.
In the year 1997, she took the initiative in the field of human health.
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Establishment of Subsidiaries
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw spearheaded Biocon's evolution from an industrial enzyme manufacturing company to a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with a balanced business portfolio of products and a research focus on diabetes, oncology, and auto-immune diseases.
She also established two subsidiaries, Syngene (1994) which provides preliminary research and development support services on a contract basis, and Clinigene (2000) which focuses on clinical research trials and the development of both generic and new drugs.
Clinigene was later merged into Syngene. Syngene was listed on BSE/NSE in 2015 and has a market capitalization of ₹23,000 crore.
In 1984, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw began to develop a research and development team at Biocon, focusing on the discovery of new enzymes and the development of new techniques for solid substrate fermentation technology.
The company's first major expansion took place in 1987 when Narayanan Vaghul of ICICI Ventures supported the creation of a US$250,000 venture capital fund.
This assistance provided momentum for Biocon to expand its research and development efforts. They built a new plant featuring proprietary solid substrate fermentation technology based on a semi-automated tray culture process inspired by Japanese techniques.
In 1989, for Biocon Technologies, the U.S. Became the first Indian biotech company to receive funding.
In 1990, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw incorporated Biocon Biopharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd (BBLP) in a joint venture with the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology to manufacture and market a select range of biotherapeutics.
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When Biocon became an Independent Company
Ireland's Biocon Biochemicals Company was acquired by Unilever in 1989 by Leslie Auchincloss.
The partnership with Unilever helped Biocon establish the global best business and quality systems. In 1997, Unilever sold its specialty chemicals division, including Biocon, to Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).
In 1998, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's husband, Scotsman John Shaw, personally raised $2 million to buy the outstanding Biocon shares from ICI.
Two years after becoming an independent organization, it developed its trademarked concentrated matrix yeast-based bio-reactor, which was named 'Plafractor TM'.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw built the company's first fully automated submerged fermentation plant for the production of specialty drugs.
By the year 2003, 'Biocon Limited' became the first company in the world to develop human insulin.
John Shaw left his position as the chairman of Madura Coates to join Biocon. He became the Vice Chairman of Biocon in 2001.
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India's first biotechnology company to Issue an IPO
In 2004, following the advice of Narayana Murthy, Kiran Mazumdar decided to list Biocon on the stock market.
Their intention was to raise capital to further develop Biocon's research programs.
Biocon was the first biotechnology company in India to issue an IPO. Biocon's IPO was subscribed 33 times and closed with a market capitalization of $1.11 billion on its first day of trading.
Biocon became the second Indian company to cross the $1 billion mark on the first day of its IPO listing.
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Roles in Other Areas
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a member of the Governing Body and General Body of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, an autonomous body of the Government of India.
She is a founding member of the Society of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.
She has been nominated as a member of the Board of Trade and Directorate General of Foreign Trade by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
She is a member of the National Innovation Council of the Government of India. Also a member of the Board of Administrators of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a board member of the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, and BioVentures for World Health.
She is the Honorary Consul of the Irish Embassy in Karnataka.
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Charitable Work
In the year 2004, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started the 'Biocon Foundation' to conduct health, education, sanitation and environment programs to benefit the poor and vulnerable sections of the society.
70,000 rural members have been enrolled under the Foundation's 'Micro-Health Insurance' program.
In the year 2009, Dr. Devi Shetty K. Narayana Hrudayalaya set up a 1,400-bed cancer care center at the Narayana Health City campus in Boommasandra, Bangalore. It is known as Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Center (MSCC).
Along with Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has supported the development of the Arogya Raksha Yojana.
Through this program, Biocon Foundation sets up clinics to provide clinical care, generic medicines, and basic tests for those who cannot afford them.
By 2010, each of the seven clinics covered 10 km. Serves a population of 50,000 patients living within a distance of 3,00,000 people treated annually.
Clinics organize regular general health check-ups in remote villages by bringing doctors from network hospitals.
To improve early cancer detection, she has trained young women as community health workers, who use smartphones to send pictures of suspicious lesions to oncologists at the cancer center.
Public health campaigns such as the "Queen of Heart" educate people on specific health topics and promote early detection of problems such as heart disease.
In 2011, they added a bone marrow transplant unit and a research center as a center for advanced therapeutics. Their goal is to create a world-class cancer center.
In 2015, she joined The Giving Pledge, pledging to dedicate at least half of her wealth to charity.
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Contribution to the Pharmaceutical Industry
England's famous magazine 'The Medicine Maker' has placed Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in second place on the list of 100 celebrities in the field of medicine. The special thing is that the magazine has given place only to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw from India in this list.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the second most powerful drug maker in the world, second only to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, US.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw always believed in "Frugal Innovation" which has been a driving force behind Biocon's expansion. Driven by the need for affordable medicines in less-wealthy countries, they looked for opportunities to develop cost-effective technologies and low-cost alternatives.
She has also proposed that drug companies be cost-sensitive in marketing to developing countries so that people can afford the drugs they need, especially chronic medications.
She noticed the market potential for statins (cholesterol-fighting drugs) early on. When the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin expired off-patent in 2001, Biocon became involved in its development. The company then expanded into other forms of statins.
Part of their strategy was to enter into long-term supply contracts, establishing a reliable market over time. Statins accounted for more than 50 percent of the company's revenue.
The company's revenue grew from ₹70 crore in 1998 to ₹500 crore in 2004 when it went public.
Biocon continues to expand across sectors. Yeast expression platforms provide a desirable alternative to mammalian cell cultures for the genetic manipulation of cells for use in a variety of drug therapies.
Unicellular methylotrophic yeasts such as Pichia pastoris are used in the production of vaccines, antibody fragments, hormones, cytokines, matrix proteins, and biosimilars.
Biocon's major research areas now include cancer, diabetes, and other auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.
Due to the high percentage of people in India who chew paan or tobacco, India accounts for eighty percent of oral cancer in the world, locally known as "mouth cancer".
Biocon is also working on drugs to treat psoriasis, a skin pigment disease.
Bio-pharmaceuticals developed by the company include Pichia-derived recombinant human insulin and insulin analogs for diabetes, an anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody for head and neck cancer, and a biologic for psoriasis.
Biocon is Asia's largest insulin producer and has the largest infusion-based antibody production facilities.
As of 2014, Biocon directed about 10% of its revenue into research and development, a much higher proportion than most Indian pharmacological companies.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is interested in promoting biotechnology as a field. She is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
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Awards and Honors
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was awarded the 'Othmer Gold Medal-2014' in Philadelphia (USA) for her special contribution to science and chemistry. She is the third and the first Indian woman in the world to have received the 'Othmer Gold Medal'.
- In the year 2014, Forbes magazine placed her at the 92nd position among the world's most powerful women.
- In 2007-08, MedAid News, a leading US-based trade publication, ranked Biocon the 20th largest biotechnology company in the world and the 7th largest employer in the world.
- She has also been honored with the prestigious Padma Shri (1989) and Padma Bhushan (2005) awards by the Government of India for her pioneering work.
- Her name has also been included in the list of 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.
- She is included in the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women in the world.
- She has also been featured in the Financial Times list of Top 50 Women in Business.
- In 2004, for her contributions to biotechnology, her alma mater, Ballarat University, awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Science.
- She was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Dundee University, UK in the year 2007, Glasgow University, UK in the year 2008, and Harriet-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK in the year 2008.
Jagdisha's hearty thanks to Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw for taking her skills and biotechnology to heights in her field.
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