"An Unfinished Agenda" is an unemotional yet intense autobiography of Dr K. Anji Reddy, the founder of Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, Hyderabad. It is detailed with a lot of anecdotes and is very descriptive about the pharmaceutical industry.
The motivational factor behind this scientist turned entrepreneur is the historic landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong in 1969. Dr Reddy attributes his success to this event which inspired him to establish his own pharmaceutical company and realise his dream of providing affordable medicines to the world. Born in 1941 at Tadepalli, a small town in Andhra Pradesh, Dr Anji Reddy completed his schooling and graduated from the University Department of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and earned his Doctorate from the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune. He started his career with Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited in 1967 and founded Dr Reddy's Laboratories in 1984. Top on his list was to manufacture bulk drugs and sell them to the multinational and local industry for making finished dosages at reasonable prices, which was enabled by the new Patents Act in 1972. Though the bulk prices were lower, Dr Reddy observed that many pharma companies were unwilling to pass on the benefit to needy patients, so he came up with a very simple formula - one Dollar equals one Rupee. The best example is Enalapril which he launched with the trade name Enam. He priced it at ₹ 1.20 whereas the price in the USA was US$ 1.20.
The discovery of new drugs had always been very close to Dr Reddy's heart and he felt extremely joyous when a new drug was discovered as it felt like a reward finding a cure for a specific disease. This was always his lifelong ambition which is echoed in the title of the book. He came to realising his dream when he licensed two molecules to Novo Nordisk for development. Sadly, work on each was stopped before it could reach its conclusion. While Balaglitazar, named after God Balaji, was an improvement over a molecule indicated for the treatment of diabetes, Ragaglitazar was a first-in-class molecule that could treat diabetes and lower harmful cholesterol and, therefore, had the potential to become a blockbuster. In fact, there is an entire chapter in this book which describes in great depth the failure of Ragaglitazar. Dr Reddy's disappointment is very evident when one reads this chapter.
Another ambitious move is when Dr Reddy acquired Betapharm, Germany's fourth largest generic company in 2005. It was the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian company. Despite competition from Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's walked away with the deal. But in 2007, the German government decided to give the power to prescribe medicines to insurance companies. This impacted the profits and sales force of Dr Reddy's Laboratories and they had to write this investment down and report a loss.
Filled with interesting discoveries made by many great scientists and how they made their mark in the healthcare industry through these discoveries, this book makes a very interesting read. It shows that there is much more to the pharmaceutical world than just chemical equations. In a nutshell, "An Unfinished Agenda" is all about Dr Reddy's missionary zeal and faith in science and the urge to do what he could in every walk of life with steadfast conviction, be it affordable medicines or drug discovery or social responsibility.
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