It was the 90s and the spread of HIV and AIDS was decimating vulnerable populations in developing countries, with combative drugs unaffordable due to the monopoly of multinationals.

Dharmesh was the director for business development at Hetero Drugs, a company pioneering the development and marketing of cheaper generic drugs. Using his sharp business acumen, he catapulted the company into becoming the leading producer of cheap, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for anti-retrovirals, exporting to Latin America, the Middle East, Sub-Sahara and Africa, and helping countless lives of HIV-infected adults and children.  

“The father was a taxi driver and the mother worked for an insurance company. They had lost everything — their house, their business, their jobs — to find the money to pay for the treatment of their little boy. They probably even knew it was going to be futile, but what do you do? You try everything to save your loved one. Ultimately, though, on top of the worry they had for their son, they were ruined financially.”

A battle to provide cheaper HIV drugs

Dharmesh explains how 1 simple injection, required daily to relieve the dry mouth suffered by cancer patients after chemotherapy damages the salivary glands, costs US$2,000. “My father had 30 injections over 30 days, and we were very fortunate because we could afford it,” Dharmesh says. My vision was very clear: to look at another life-threatening disease, cancer, and make the drugs affordable and accessible to everyone.” 

Long-term commitment

While he believed in himself as a competent technocrat, Dharmesh needed to build a competent scientific team — like-minded individuals who not only understood his dream, but would commit long term. 

“It’s a very flat structure, because as a leader I walk at ground level at all times,” Dharmesh says. “It’s only team work that makes anybody successful. I may have an individual dream, but if I don’t have a good team, nothing can really work. Ego and professional jealousy always trigger a migration of manpower, but I can proudly say that at BDR our work culture, created from a family environment and teamwork, ensures minimal rotation.”