Yusuf Hamied Quotes & Sayings

Alleviation of suffering is my fundamental principle. — Yusuf Hamied

Patients are becoming aware that they're being taken for a ride by big pharma companies. They charge high prices and have never cared for India's healthcare. There are 23 million cases of cancer every year and India has a fair share of that. — Yusuf Hamied

I do believe anybody manufacturing products for healthcare cannot regard it truly as a 100 per cent business: it is business plus a humanitarian approach to society because you are saving lives. You are playing with people's lives. — Yusuf Hamied

If tomorrow the Chinese decide not to supply the world with raw materials, the pharma industry would collapse. — Yusuf Hamied

Unfortunately, the mechanism for doing philanthropy in a structured way isn't yet in place in India. I already do a fair bit and support various causes such as education, sanitation, health. But selling costly drugs at affordable prices is philanthropy in itself. — Yusuf Hamied

I want it to be said when I leave this world that 'he was not just a money-making machine.' — Yusuf Hamied

Cipla has a strong professional management team, and we take team decisions. My brother has been working at Cipla since 1973. — Yusuf Hamied

India made a big mistake by signing up to TRIPS. With a population of 1.3 billion, India can't afford a monopoly in healthcare. Monopolies lead to higher prices and we can't allow them in a country like India with so much poverty and misery. It was like signing our own death warrant. — Yusuf Hamied

Every country has the right to determine its own laws. And India can't afford monopolies. — Yusuf Hamied

I believe that life-saving, essential drugs should be freely available and the innovator should be paid a suitable royalty payment for his invention. — Yusuf Hamied

Reducing the price of AIDS drugs gave me so much satisfaction that I've been thinking what else I could do. One day, I thought, 'Let's look at cancer and see how we can spare cancer patients' unnecessary suffering.' — Yusuf Hamied

Reducing the price of cancer drugs is a humanitarian move. — Yusuf Hamied

My father never forced me, but chemistry was my best subject. — Yusuf Hamied

Clinton has played a major role in giving companies like Cipla credibility, for which I will always be grateful. — Yusuf Hamied

AIDS today is not a death sentence. It can be treated as a chronic illness, or a chronic disease. — Yusuf Hamied

I had seen AIDS patients in India and Africa, and knowing that people were dying even though drugs existed that could help them was shattering for me. — Yusuf Hamied

If you look at the world's top 50 drugs being sold today, they are being marketed and sold by companies that did not invent them. I respect patents. I'll pay a royalty. But I shouldn't be denied the right to produce drugs for poor people at reasonable prices. — Yusuf Hamied

Cipla has already developed a generic version, oseltamivir, which would be much cheaper than Tamiflu, the only available drug effective in treating avian flu. — Yusuf Hamied

As long as I can contribute, I'll continue working. — Yusuf Hamied