Looking beyond generic, Sun Pharma plans to develop its own medicines

After a 4-yr decline that erased 65% from the value of Sun, Shanghvi is preparing to bounce back

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s lost more during the recent upheaval in the generic drug business than Dilip Shanghvi: He forfeited $17 billion to be precise, plus the title of India’s richest man.

After a four-year decline that erased 65 per cent from the value of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, the drugmaker he founded, Shanghvi is preparing to bounce back. He’s doing it by borrowing a page from Big Pharma’s playbook: investing in higher-margin patented medicines rather than relying solely on copying drugs.

That won’t be easy, especially when the multinationals that dominate the pharma business have already seen the payoffs