Indian Companies can make a huge difference to global healthcare: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Biocon

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon, talks about the hurdles and challenges she faced in her journey, vision for the company and FY22 outlook for her company during an exclusive interview with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business. Edited Excerpts:

Q: What kind of challenges and hurdles you have faced in your journey and how you overcome them?

A: I would like to wish Happy Women’s Day to ladies and would like to say about them that we should have faith in them. A lot of things can happen with determination and trust. When I started my business journey, there were a lot of challenges at that time. You can understand that women have to overcome credibility and perception challenges. Even, I had to overcome a lot of credibility challenges and perception hurdles when I started Biocon in 1978. And I feel that many perception hurdles are still there even after four decades. 

Q: Biocon has had a good journey since its inception and is performing well globally. What is the next challenge for you and what is your vision to take your company ahead?

A: I have always been focused on impacting global healthcare. Affordable access is the only mantra for me. People are paying more attention to this since the arrival of COVID and that is that this is not about one country or community. It is all of us, which is impacted the world and it is realized, now. When we look at the COVID management and vaccination campaign, I think, the developing world is doing a better job than the advanced world. If you have a look in the area of vaccination, India is now being recognized as the largest vaccination producer in the world and we are supplying vaccines even to advanced nations. So, the tables are turned, and I think, this is what I wanted to prove that companies from India can make a huge difference to global healthcare. So, this is my vision, and I am paying a lot of attention to this vision and after the arrival of COVID, I want to pay more attention to it because it is showing to the world that India is a very important part of the global supply chain when it comes to global health.

Q: How the company is gearing for FY22 and what kind of important developments are happening at the company and how bullish you are about the numbers?

A: I hope that due to vaccination in the next few months, we will return to normalcy and our business will come back to normalcy. And, after that, I am quite confident that our business will rebound and get on towards the growth trajectory.