Made in India : The Story of Desh Bandhu Gupta, Lupin and Indian Pharma

Today, Lupin is a multibillion-dollar enterprise whose medicines reach patients in over 120 countries, and its tuberculosis drugs are the most widely used in the world.

DBG’s life was shaped early by adversity. As a child, he fractured his ankle; with no transportation available, his father carried him on his shoulders for three hours to the nearest hospital. But it was too late and DBG was left with a lifelong limp – and a deep resolve. Growing up without privilege or patronage, in a home without a toilet or electricity, he trained as a chemist, became a schoolteacher and then professor, and was even fired from BITS Pilani. He then worked in corporate India and, against considerable odds, took the unconventional leap into entrepreneurship. What distinguished the man was not flamboyance or bravado, but patience and discipline. During the Licence Raj, he spent weeks waiting outside bureaucrats’ offices, navigating an unforgiving state – while refusing shortcuts that compromised quality or ethics. From the outset, Lupin was built on an insistence that manufacturing standards and trust mattered more than speed or profits.