Global Economy Prize for India's biotech queen

India's biotechnology queen and Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has been awarded the coveted Global Economy Prize for business by the Kiel Institute in Germany during its centenary celebrations.

"Mazumdar-Shaw is the first Indian woman and fourth Indian to be conferred this prize," the Bangalore-based biotech company said in a statement here Monday.

The German institute is an international centre for research in global economic affairs, economic policy consulting and economic education.

"The award, set up in 2005, is bestowed on pioneers finding solutions to global economic problems by influencing and implementing economic or trade systems based on individual initiative," the statement said.

The annual prize is awarded to three individuals - a high-ranking policy maker, a renowned economist and an outstanding entrepreneur.

After receiving the prize at Kiel Sunday, Shaw said: "I am honoured to receive this prestigious award and consider it a privilege to be in the company of great economists, world leaders and entrepreneurs."

Liberia President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and University of Chicago professor Richard H. Thaler were the other two who were conferred the honour along with Shaw for 2014.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Kalyani group chairman Baba N. Kalyani and Bharti group chairman Bharti Mittal are three Indians who received the prize in the past.

Shaw pioneered biotechnology in India and started Biocon as a novel enzymes company, which evolved into the country's largest biopharmaceutical enterprise committed to affordable innovation.

With the largest scientific talent pool, the company is engaged in research to develop novel and differentiated biopharmaceuticals aimed at reducing the cost of treatment for cancer, diabetes and autoimmune disorders for patients worldwide.