Pankaj Patel

Pankaj Patel has spent nearly fifty years building one of India’s largest drug companies, with a focus on developing new medicines. In 2025 he was named for the Padma Bhushan in the field of trade and industry, from Gujarat ^[1].

Building Zydus

Patel was born on 16 March 1953 and earned a master’s in pharmaceutics from L.M. College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad, in 1976 ^[2]. He joined Cadila Laboratories that year, became managing director of Cadila Healthcare and the Zydus Group in 1995, and chairman when the company listed in 2000 ^[2]. Zydus now operates in 85 countries ^[2].

New medicines

Under him, Zydus developed Lipaglyn, which the citation describes as India’s first new drug taken all the way from the lab to market, used by more than 15 lakh patients with chronic liver disease ^[2]. It also launched India’s first H1N1 flu vaccine in 2009–10, and ZyCoV-D, the world’s first plasmid DNA vaccine, during the Covid-19 pandemic ^[2].

Health and education

Patel chairs the Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, and Zydus runs a medical college and hospital in Dahod serving tribal areas of eastern Gujarat ^[2]. He has chaired the boards of IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Udaipur, and serves on the central board of the Reserve Bank of India ^[2].