Cipla Limited (BSE: 500087, NSE: CIPLA) is a prominent Indian pharmaceutical company,

best-known outside its home country for manufacturing low-cost anti-AIDS drugs for HIV-
positive patients in developing countries. Founded by Khwaja Abdul Hamied as The
Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratories in 1935, Cipla makes drugs to treat
cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, weight control, depression and many other health
conditions, and its products are distributed in more than 180 countries worldwide.

Company Profile

Cipla offers services like consulting, commissioning, engineering, project appraisal, quality
control, know-how transfer, support, and plant supply.

Apart from its presence in the Indian market, Cipla also has an export market and regularly
exports to more than 185 countries in all corners of the world.

Cipla is also considerably well-known for its technological innovation and processes, and has
been approved by regulatory bodies such as:

 Food and Drug Administration (FDA), USA

 Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), UK
 Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia
 Medicines Control Council (MCC), South Africa
 National Institute of Pharmacy (NIP), Hungary
 Pharamaceutical Inspection Convention (PIC), Germany
 World Health Organisation (WHO) Department of Health, Canada
 State Institute for the Control of Drugs, Slovak Republic ANVISA, Brazil

Struggle against HIV/AIDS in the developing world

 Cipla is the world's largest manufacturer of antiretroviral drugs[3] (ARVs) to
fight HIV/AIDS, as measured by units produced and distributed (multinational brand-
name drugs are much more expensive, so in money terms Cipla medicines are
probably somewhere down the list). Roughly 40 percent of HIV/AIDS patients
undergoing antiretroviral therapy worldwide take Cipla drugs.[4][5]

 In February, 2001, Cipla stunned the HIV/AIDS and public health communities by
announcing it would make its triple cocktail of antiretroviral drugs available in
developing countries for $350 per patient per year, a tiny fraction of the prices
prevailing internationally at the time. Ten years later, looking back on the decade of
rapid growth in access which ensued, the Journal of the International AIDS
Society (IAS) would write:
 Cipla’s dramatic price reduction, which received widespread media attention,
hammered the message home that many of the multinational drug companies were
abusing their market monopoly in the face of a catastrophic human disaster.[6]
 Indian law from 1972 until 2005 allowed no (end-product) patents on drugs, and
provided for compulsory licensing, Cipla was able to manufacture medicines which
enjoyed patent monopoly in certain other countries (particularly those where large,
multinational pharmaceutical companies are based). By doing so, as well as by
making an executive decision not to make profits on AIDS medication, Cipla reduced
the cost of providing antiretrovirals to AIDS patients from $12,000 and beyond
(monopoly prices charged by international pharma conglomerates) down to under
$100 per year. While this sum remains out of reach for many millions of people
in Third World countries, government and charitable sources often are in a position to
make up the difference for destitute patients.
 Cipla also pioneered a three-in-one tablet called Triomune containing a fixed-dose
combination (FDC) of three ARVs (Lamivudine, stavudine and Nevirapine),
something difficult elsewhere because the three patents were held by different
companies. Another popular fixed-dose combination is produced under the name
Duovir-N. This contains Lamivudine, Zidovudine and Nevirapine. Cipla
manufactures generic versions of many of the most commonly prescribed anti-
retroviral medication in the market,[7] and is a highly capable manufacturer in its own
right. This innovation made ARVs far more accessible and easy-to-take for patients
everywhere, but particularly in poor- and middle-income countries, where the vast
majority of people on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) now take such combination pills.

 Cipla was among the first companies to register AIDS drugs under the US relief
program PEPFAR.[8] It has also been a major supplier of ARVs to the Clinton
Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative, which has negotiated low-cost drug supplies for
numerous developing countries.

 Through its breakthrough price offers to developing country governments and leading
NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam, along with its keen
participation in PEPFAR, the Global Fund, the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS
Initiative and other major donor programs fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa and
elsewhere in the resource-poor world, Cipla has played an unparalleled leadership role
in ensuring access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) rose from under 10,000 on the
entire African continent at the time of its $350 per patient per year offer in 2001, to
well over 5 million in the developing world by the end of 2009.
Other drugs
Cipla also has a product range comprising antibiotics, anti-bacterials, anti-asthmatics, anthelmintics,
anti-ulcerants, oncology, corticosteroids, nutritional supplements and cardiovascular drugs. The
company has at least nine different prescription drugs registered with the US FDA.[15] Cipla is into
anti-bacterial and anti-asthmatic segments and is the first player in Asia to launch non-CFC metered
dose inhaler.. .

Milestones

 1935
 Dr K A Hamied sets up "The Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd." in a
rented bungalow, at Bombay Central.

1941
As the Second World War cuts off drug supplies, the company starts producing fine chemicals,
dedicating all its facilities for the war effort.

1952
Sets up first research division for attaining self-sufficiency in technological development.

1960
Starts operations at second plant at Vikhroli, Mumbai, producing fine chemicals with special
emphasis on natural products.

1968
Cipla manufactures ampicillin for the first time in the country

1972
Starts Agricultural Research Division at Bangalore, for scientific cultivation of medicinal plants.

1976
Cipla launches medicinal aerosols for asthma.

1980
Wins Chemexcil Award for Excellence for exports.

1982
Fourth factory begins operations at Patalganga, Maharashtra.
1984
Develops anti-cancer drugs, vinblastine and vincristine in collaboration with the National Chemical
Laboratory, Pune. Wins Sir P C Ray Award for developing inhouse technology for indigenous
manufacture of a number of basic drugs.

1985
US FDA approves Cipla's bulk drug manufacturing facilities.

1988
Cipla wins National Award for Successful Commercialization of Publicly Funded R&D.

1991
Lauches etoposide, a breakthrough in cancer chemotherapy, in association with Indian Institute of
Chemical Technology. The company pioneers the manufacture of the antiretroviral drug, zidovudine,
in technological collaboration with Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.

1994
Cipla's fifth factory begins commercial production at Kurkumbh, Maharashtra.

1997
Launches transparent Rotahaler, the world's first such dry powder inhaler device now patented by
Cipla in India and abroad. The palliative cancer care centre set up by the Cipla Foundation, begins
offering free services at Warje, near Pune.

1998
Launches lamivudine, becoming one of the few companies in the world to offer all three component
drugs of retroviral combination therapy (zidovudine and stavudine already launched).

1999
Launches Nevirapine, antiretroviral drug, used to prevent the transmission of AIDS from mother to
child.

2000
Cipla became the first company, outside the USA and Europe to launch CFC-free inhalers – ten years
before the deadline to phase out use of CFC in medicinal products.

2002
Four state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities set up in Goa in a record time of less than twelve
months.

2003
Launches TIOVA (Tiotropium bromide), a novel inhaled, long-acting anticholinergic bronchodilator
that is employed as a once-daily maintenance treatment for patients with chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD). Commissioned second phase of manufacturing operations at Goa.

2005
Set-up state-of-the-art facility for manufacture of formulations at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

2007
Set-up state-of-the-art facility for manufacture of formulations at Sikkim.

2010

Set up state-of-the-art facility for manufacture of formulations at Indore.