Samprada Singh: The Man who broke Dominance of Foreign Firms in Indian Pharma sector

Samprada Singh’s life journey exudes courage, resolve, hard-work but most importantly, an undefeatable will to conquer fate. He was born in a middle-class family residing in Okri village of Jehanabad district of Bihar. His family’s major earning came from agriculture, which often were destroyed by the fury of nature.

Although, Singh couldn’t fulfil his aspiration to become a doctor, he did become the first graduate of his village. He then forayed into agriculture and then started selling umbrellas. In the year 1953, Singh opened a medical store and just six years later, a pharmaceutical distribution company – Laxmi Pharma. Later, Singh started his own pharmaceutical distribution company, Magadh Pharma in Patna. After 16 years of distribution, Singh decided to enter pharmaceutical manufacturing with Aristo Labs in 1970. But, after a series of setback and failed partnerships, Singh took a decisive step, which definitively changed the Indian Pharmaceutical Market. The year was 1973 and the step was the establishment of Alkem Laboratories.

In a time, when Indian Pharmaceutical Market was dominated by International organizations, Singh’s bold step redefined the potential of the Indian pharmaceutical companies. Today, Alkem Laboratories develops, manufactures, and markets pharmaceutical formulations and nutraceuticals in India. The company has operations in Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, South America, the United States and India.

It was under Singh’s visionary leadership, Alkem became one of largest pharmaceutical company of India, and carved out a distinct place for itself in the global pantheon of pharmaceutical giants. Singh was one of the most successful Bihari businessman.

His success story fired the imagination of a generation of Indian entrepreneurs, business leaders and progressive companies. For many, he still remains an icon, a role model to be emulated. Singh may no longer be amongst us but his spirit lives on. His towering persona guides the actions over 14,500 Alkemites towards taking the organization to new heights.

Samprada Singh served as chairman of Alkem Laboratories till his death in 2019. His brother Basudeo Narayan Singh, who co-founded Alkem Laboratories along with Samprada Singh, is the current managing director of the company.

Alkem develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical formulations and nutraceuticals in India. It has operations in Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, South America and the US as well. Singh had started out working at chemist’s store before distributing pharmaceuticals. He even got into manufacturing in Mumbai before it shut down and he started Alkem. The company became massive, clocked millions in revenues and turned Singh and his brothers into billionaires. Singh has featured several times on Forbes’ richest Indian lists. He died in July 2019 at the age of 94.