Cancer Slayer ; by Refocussing Its Strategies, Natco Pharma has Pulled Back From the Brink of Bankruptcy to Power Ahead in Cancer Drugs. Now It Is Looking for Niche Areas Globally. Can It Scale Up and Take On Global Competition?

Summary

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When Chowdary V. Nannapaneni came back from the US in 1981 with plans to get into pharma manufacturing after stints at companies there, naming his firm was the easy part. He just patched together the family names of Nannapaneni, Alapati and Tummala to Natco.

Securing a loan of Rs 20 lakh and adding Rs 12 lakh of his own funds, the 36-year-old MS in Pharmacy then set off on his route to growth, taking Natco to a peak in 1997 (net profit of Rs 16 crore on revenues of Rs 279 crore). The dizzying drop in just two years into a net loss of Rs 22 crore was his first lesson in focus.

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Cancer Slayer ; by Refocussing Its Strategies, Natco Pharma has Pulled Back From the Brink of Bankruptcy to Power Ahead in Cancer Drugs. Now It Is Looking for Niche Areas Globally. Can It Scale Up and Take On Global Competition?

"A lot of our investments then (like the one in a softgel plant in the US) went bad, says Founder Chairman Chowdary V. Nannapaneni. His son, Rajeev Nannapaneni, who took over as CEO in 2005, recalls: "At that time we took some gambles... We gambled on the chemicals business (bulk drugs) and we also did a lot of commoditised pro...

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