Shreya Corporation currently boasts of distributing widest range of medicaments and medical products, including more than 4,500 medicines of all pharmacological groups. The company has direct contacts with more than 300 pharmaceutical enterprises among which there are the largest national and foreign manufacturers. Shreya is an agent for some of top MNCs like GSK, Merck, Aventis, and Sanofi Synthelabo. It has also partnered for Indian companies like Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's Labs and JB Chemicals in Russia.

The corporation has got about 2,300 employees working under it. The company has 33 registered offices across Russia and CIS.

For the year ended March 2004, the Shreya group turnover was $ 501 million, a 20 per cent growth over the previous year's turnover of $ 422 million. More than 75 per cent of its earnings has come from Russia, making it the country's third largest pharma distributor. The group's turnover during the previous year stood at $ 422 million.

Singh's saga started when he went to study at the Kursk Medical University in Russia at the age of 18. Today he is in mid-thirties. Singh had no background in business - his father was a school headmaster in a village near Patna - but he recognised the opportunity provided by chaos.

In the late 80s and early 90s, although Indian companies were active in Russia, they were facing difficulty with distribution of their products in the region, with no marketing infrastructure and no reliable distribution network to sell through.

So a pharma distribution company made immense sense for the young Singh. Singh's first major supplier was Cadila Laboratories. He met up with CEO Indravadan Modi in Moscow and struck a deal to sell the Ahmedabad-based company's products in the city region. By then, Singh had decided to quit medical school to concentrate on his fledgling business.

Shreya Corporation has successfully worked in Russia since 1993. It began as a small Indian firm renting a double accommodation in "Izmailovo" Hotel as its office. The company started by importing consumer goods into Russia. In 1994, the company board decided to enter the Russian pharmaceutical market. This attempt was successful, which changed the orientation of the company.

The Shreya group's second major supplier was Ranbaxy and this was followed by other Indian companies like Dr Reddy's Laboratories, JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals and then transnational names like Aventis, GSK and Pfizer.

By then, Singh had created a pan-Russia distribution network and had proved himself to be a reliable partner. Singh has targeted a turnover of $750 million by 2005 and is hoping to make Shreya into a fully integrated pharma and biotech organisation.

Here in India, two years ago, Singh pulled off quite a coup by acquiring Rallis India's pharma division from the Tatas, paying Rs 49 crore, financed equally through internal accruals and a loan from IDBI. The acquisition has finally given the group
a manufacturing base in Aurangabad, India and in Harare, Zimbabwe. Singh's second acquisition, the Rs 85 crore buy-out of the domestic prescription drug division of the Indore based Plethico Pharma earlier this year, has more than doubled Shreya's field force.

In India, Singh carries out the pharmaceuticals related activities through Shreya Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. and it's division Amadeus Biotech & Pharmaceuticals. He also has business interest in other countries in the similar line of activities.

Mumbai headquartered Shreya Life Sciences today generates revenue of more than Rs 300 crore turnover, of which more than one-third proportion has been from the company's exports to the parent company in Russia. Shreya Life Sciences has set up a Rs 60 crore greenfield project in Pune's Biotech Park, which will make the hepatitis B vaccine and human insulin.