The biotech queen

When Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started her biotech company almost 30 years ago, no one would rent out office space to her, banks refused to lend her the necessary $10,000 capital and suppliers didn’t want to sell her raw materials. Now, the 51-year-old is the richest businesswoman in India.

Mazumdar-Shaw grew up in a progressive Indian family that sent her to university instead of pushing her into an arranged marriage. In 1977, while working as a consultant, she was asked to start an Indian branch of Biocon Biochemicals, an Irish chemicals company.

At first, Mazumdar-Shaw was not accepted by the male-dominated Indian business world, but she managed to overcome the difficulties. By the late 1980s, Biocon India was making $1 million a year as a producer of enzymes. Ten years later, Mazumdar-Shaw decided to move into the production of insulin and other drugs, which required $11 million in additional capital. “We bet the bank,” she told Forbes.