Pankaj Patel is an Indian pharma billionaire and leads Zydus Lifesciences as the chairman. He is a second-generation businessman who used to go to the medicine factory with his father and watch employees working on tablet machines. He now runs Zydus, one the largest pharmaceutical companies in India with a market cap of Rs 109000 crore.
Formerly Cadila Healthcare, Patel joined Zydus in 1976. The company was co-founded by his late father in 1952 to make vitamins. The 71-year-old took charge in 1995 after a formal separation between the two founding families. Pankaj now runs the pharma company with his son Sharvil, who has been the company's managing director since July 2017. Pankaj is one of the richest businessmen in India with a real-time net worth of Rs 87460 crore, as per Forbes. He is currently at 213th position on Forbes World's billionaires list.
The billionaire belongs to Gujarat and did his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Pharmacy from Gujarat University. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Science and Law degree from Mumbai University. He is on the board of several institutions, including the chairman of IIM Udaipur and chairperson of the Board of Governors of IIM Ahmedabad. Pankaj combines both research and techno-commercial expertise. He has published over 100 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a co-inventor in more than 64 patents.
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