Desh Bandhu Gupta, founder and Chairman of Lupin, India’s second-largest pharmaceutical company passed away on 26 June 2017 in Mumbai. He was 79.
Gupta had not been keeping well for some time and was not actively involved in the business for a few years. He is survived by his wife and five children.
Born in Rajgarh, Rajasthan, Gupta earned a master’s degree in chemistry. He started his career as an associate professor at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani in Rajasthan.
He had a vision to fight life-threatening diseases of highest national priority by delivering good quality medicines at an affordable price.
With that objective he founded Lupin in the 1968 with a start-up capital of just INR 5000.
Under his leadership, Lupin grew from being a domestic Indian pharmaceutical company to a global pharmaceutical major worth a US$ 1.83 billion, spanning 100 countries.
Lupin is one of the largest producers of tuberculosis medicines in the world. Gupta set up the Lupin Human Welfare & Research Foundation (LHWRF), one of the largest non-governmental organizations funded by a corporation in Southeast Asia, in October 1988.
The main objective behind setting up of the foundation was to eradicate poverty by encouraging sustainable development at the grass root level in rural India.
