The company achieved Rs 7 lakh in sales in its first year.
New Delhi: Sun Pharmaceuticals is one of India’s as well as the world’s leading drug manufacturing companies and has made a name for itself in the pharmaceutical industry.
It was found by Dilip Shanghvi who started his journey with just two employees. His focus and vision were on marketing and distributing medicines and under his expert management, Sun Pharmaceuticals became one of India’s most valuable listed pharma enterprise.
Dilip was born on October 1, 1955, in Amreli, Gujarat and completed his schooling in Kolkata and earned a Commerce degree from Calcutta University. In 1983, he borrowed Rs 10,000 from his father to start Sun Pharmaceuticals in a small room in Vapi, Gujarat.
The company achieved Rs 7 lakh in sales in its first year.
Sun Pharma expanded quickly across India and, in 1997, entered the US market by acquiring Caraco Pharma. In 2014, Sun Pharma made a major move by acquiring Ranbaxy Laboratories for Rs 19,000 crore, becoming India’s largest pharmaceutical company.
Currently, the company generates nearly two-thirds of its reported $5.3 billion annual revenue from international markets. Sun Pharmaceuticals, in 2023, made a major breakthrough by completing a $576 million acquisition of the US-based Concert Pharmaceuticals, further solidifying its global footprint.
Dilip Shanghvi’s enterprise is now creating an imposing $5.4 billion (approximately Rs 44,971 crore) in annual revenue.
He has a net worth of Rs 2.74 lakh crore ($32.4 billion) in 2024 and is the fifth wealthiest person in India, as per Forbes. He has been instrumental in expanding the Indian pharmaceutical industry globally. He has surpassed Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India.
In 2016, Dilip was awarded the Padma Shri for his contributions to the industry and appointed to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) central board committee in 2018. He is also serving as Maharashtra’s Economic Advisory Council.
Dilip was appointed chairman of Gujarat Biotechnology University in 2022 while he also chaired the Board of Governors at IIT Mumbai.
He has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Bhawanipur College. He did not receive any formal business training. Dilip Shanghvi has made Sun Pharma the world’s fourth-largest specialty generics pharmaceutical company with presence in over 100 countries.