: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw’s Inspiring Journey to Provide Low-Cost Meds to Millions #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs This article has been published in association with Underwriters Laboratories. As a young

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw’s Inspiring Journey to Provide Low-Cost Meds to Millions #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs
This article has been published in association with Underwriters Laboratories.

As a young girl, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw wanted to become a doctor. But when she was unsuccessful in securing a seat at any of the medical colleges she had applied for she turned to pursue a career in brewing science which uses biotechnology. Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who calls herself an ‘accidental entrepreneur’, is the founder of India’s first biotechnology enterprise, Biocon, which is now a leading global biopharmaceutical company.
A pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India, Kiran’s journey began in the late 1970s, in a garage in Bengaluru. With a strong sense of purpose to make a difference, and her grit and determination to buck the trend of Indian women running a corporation, Dr Kiran has shaped Biocon into a Group of Companies which are science-led and innovation-driven. These companies are engaged in serving millions of patients across the globe by enabling affordable access to complex, life-saving biotherapeutics and providing cutting-edge research services to leading global life sciences companies.
From brewing to biotechnology
Born in 1953 in Bengaluru, Kiran completed her bachelor’s in Zoology (Honours) from Bangalore University and a post-graduate diploma in Malting and Brewing from Ballarat Institute of Advanced Education, Australia.

“Fermentation science was a subject that had many applications in different fields and my father encouraged me to pursue it. It’s about fermenting various kinds of grains using yeast and then making different kinds of beers from it. It was a very unconventional thing for a girl to do. I was all set to pursue a brewing career anywhere in the world when an accidental encounter with an Irish biotech entrepreneur changed my fate,�? Kiran reminisced in a podcast.
It was a period when she hit the gender barrier where people didnt want to hire a woman as a brewer. This pushed her into starting a biotech company with the Irish entrepreneur. “Just because I wasnt that successful in getting a brewing job, I thought, why not try this out? I even explained to my Irish partner that I dont have any business knowledge or money to invest. Moreover, Im a woman, with whom it is very difficult in a country like India to run a business. But he encouraged me to pursue an entrepreneurial journey that landed here,�? says Kiran.
However, business was not a lap of ease for Kiran. There were situations when she was gravely discriminated against because of her gender. Access to capital and recruitment were huge tasks because there were issues of credibility. Banks didn’t give her loans and people didn’t show interest to work under her, all because she was a woman and biotech was not a popular field at that time.

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