Zydus Cadila CMD Pankaj Patel becomes new FICCI president

Pankaj R Patel, chairman & managing director of Cadila Healthcare Ltd (Zydus Cadila) has been elected as the new President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) for the year 2017.

Patel will take over from Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group, during the FICCI AGM to be held on December 16 and 17, 2016 in New Delhi.

Under Patel's chairmanship, Zydus Cadila has emerged as a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of healthcare therapies in over 50 countries worldwide.

The group has 1,200 researchers across 19 sites converging to look at differentiated medicines for the future. From APIs to vaccines, biosimilars and niche technologies, the company looks at different ideas and concepts to bridge unmet healthcare needs.

Patel, who is the chairman of Board of Governors at the Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur (IIM-U), is also actively involved in various educational institutions and is on the advisory committees and academic councils of several educational institutions such as Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, IISER, Kolkata, and IIM, Ahmedabad, among others.