Lupin founder Desh Bandhu Gupta, in creating a company that licensed oncology assets to big pharma firms like AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim, set an agenda for innovation and partnering that continue to define the Indian company’s management vision to this day.
CEO Vinita Gupta and managing director Nilesh Gupta, in their first-ever podcast interview, spoke to Scrip about efforts to develop or license first-in-class and best-in-class investigational drugs, ranging from a fortnightly GLP-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) to a STING agonist, and the lasting influence on their lives of their father Desh Bandhu Gupta - known as DBG in the Indian industry.
DBG’s audacious goal-setting, motivational mix of emotion, ambition and self-interest, practice of daily conversations with employees, move to hire talent from top business schools as early as 1977 and ability to step aside as professionals charted growth plans set the tone for an enduring legacy, captured in his biography “Made In India.”
This audio interview not only features some significant learnings of the sister-brother duo as they saw Lupin evolve under DBG, but also their current view on acquisitions, path to the planned top spot in the domestic market, plans for biosimilars and leadership in tuberculosis drugs - a segment where Lupin first made its mark.
Besides, their strategy to juggle multiple GLP-1 RAs, like generics to Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide brands, which recently lost patent protection in India, and bofanglutide, licensed from China’s Gan & Lee Pharma, emerges. In a Phase IIb trial, bofanglutide showed similar weight-loss efficacy at a biweekly 48mg dosage compared to competitors’ once-weekly formulations. The company is now investigating a once-monthly regimen as part of Phase III trials.
Inspirational author Shannon Alder said “Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you” and going by the lived experience of Vinita and Nilesh Gupta, DBG did just that.
After moving to the US in 1996, Vinita announced Lupin’s ambitions with a huge sign on its Baltimore office building that was visible from harbour cruises. The city’s proximity to the US Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak headquarters and the pharma hubs of New York and New Jersey helped create a company that now ranks as the third-largest generic pharma firm globally by prescriptions.
Armed with an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an internship at Sanofi-Aventis, Nilesh set up the intellectual property management group in 2002 and today drives the company’s research and development, manufacturing and marketing activities in India. In the interview, he outlines plans to get to the number five and then number one spot in the domestic market, from its current number eight.
Highlighting the contribution of other key figures in Lupin’s journey, the biography mentions the role played by their mother Manju Gupta in providing seed funding and advice, sister Kavita Gupta in identifying the potential of biologics and biosimilars and former MD Kamal Sharma and former group president Vinod Dhawan in building a global firm via acquisitions and partnerships, with operations spread across geographies including Japan - a key but difficult to crack market.
As new arms like Lupin Manufacturing Solutions - a contract development, manufacturing and operations organization (CDMO) - expand, professionals like Claude Jepsen - former Takeda executive and now Lupin’s president of the global specialty business - have sharpened focus. Geopolitics are acting in its favor on account of manufacturing operations on US soil and the leadership is now scripting Lupin’s next phase of growth.
With a focus on both innovative and affordable medicines for unmet needs, Lupin is aiming to build a sustainable growth model and recently featured among the top 1% of companies worldwide in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, ranking as the leading pharmaceutical company globally and the leader across all sectors in India.
Time Stamps
0:08 Introduction
01:46 Impact of DBG on Lupin’s ethos
07:52 Plan to retain tuberculosis (TB) drug leadership
09:51 Objective of TB Alliance partnering for telacebec
11:05 Generic semaglutide rush in India
12:52 Tackling US, Europe drug shortages, Azithromycin crisis
15:40 US manufacturing plans, Acquisitions, Innovation focus
20:55 Strategy to scale in India
24:10 GLP-1 drugs – Bofanglutide, Semaglutide generics
26:35 New chemical entities (NCEs) in oncology
28: 47 STING agonist partnering
29:34 EU regulatory learnings for biosimilars
36:02 Seeking strategy advice
