It was Dr K Anji Reddy's day today. Speaker after speaker congratulated Dr Reddy, Chairman of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, to the thunderous applause of more than 800 delegates at the Indian Chemical Engineering Congress 2002, for having won the law suit against Pfizer, the American mulitinational pharmaceutical company, the reports of which were published in the local and national dailies on Thursday. A US court had dismissed Pfizer's complaint against Dr Reddy's, seeking restriction on DRL's generic drug Amlodipine Maleate. Its contention was that Amlodipine Maleate was a copy of its own Amlodipine Besylate, the key ingredient of its $2 billion drug, Norvasc, which is indicated for the treatment for hypertension and angina.

As expected, if FDA gives final approval to Amlodipine Maleate, Dr Reddy's will have de facto marketing exclusivity of at least three years in the US market and will get a substantial chunk of the $2 billion market share, which Pfizer's Norvasc had enjoyed.

The entire auditorium clapped as Dr Reddy rose to welcome the gathering. In the course of his address, Dr Reddy referred to the court victory and said the company was producing generic drugs under the existing legal system. He wondered why some people were calling it copying or stealing. The court verdict had vindicated the company, he said, adding that everything was done within the law.

Dr K V Raghavan, Director, IICT, in his speech, congratulated Dr Reddy and asked the full house to give a big hand to Dr Reddy and his colleagues at DRL, to which the delegates responded with a thunderous applause. This was followed up by every speaker.

Dr Reddy was felicitated by Prof. R A Sheldon, the chief guest, by presenting him with a bouquet and a shawl. Among the achievements it was mentioned how the company with a very little turnover of Rs1.5 crore in 1985 had now registered a turnover of Rs 1,557 crore. Dr Reddy had established Dr Reddy's Research Foundation in 1992. This was the first Indian company to take up basic research in the pharmaceutical industry. DRL has filed a total of 61 patents internationally for drugs for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, ulcer and bacterial infections.

DRL's discoveries in the anti-diabetes field had been licensed for further development to Novo Nordisk of Denmark in return for an upfront payment, milestone payments and royalties. But its clinical trials had been stopped in July this year after the tested mice developed some urinary reactions. The company has also outlicensed DRF 4158, an Insulin sensitiser, to Novartis Pharma AG, Switzerland.

The awards received by Dr Reddy include Sir P C Ray Award twice, the ICMA Export Award, Nayudamma Memorial Gold Medal in 1989, Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by ANACON (Indian Analytical Instrument Association) in 1997, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2001, Businessman of the Year Award 2001 from Business India magazine and Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, 2002.