'Pharma entrepreneurs share in India's wealthiest list stands the highest'

India’s pharma sector contributed the most individuals — around 126 entrepreneurs — to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022. However, the overall number of individuals from drug companies in the list still fell short of the pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the sector added 137 individuals to the rich list — its highest since the compilation was started in 2012.

The Covid-19 pandemic seemed to have helped in enhancing the wealth of a few players. In particular, Cyrus Poonawalla’s wealth surged by onefourth this year, making the chairman of Serum Institute of India the third richest with a cumulative net worth of Rs 2,05,400 crore. The cumulative wealth of B Parthasaradhi Reddy & family, the promoters of Hetero Labs, the Hyderabad-based pharma company that sold several Covid drugs, rose by 50% year-on-year to Rs 39,200 crore.

Incidentally, most pharma stocks as well as the ET Pharma Index peaked in 2015 and continued to lose value till the onset of the pandemic in India in March 2020, after which they made a new peak. However, the pharma billionaires in the Hurun Rich list increased at the strongest pace between 2016 and 2018 and the growth slowed down thereafter. In fact, the growth in the number of billionaires has been negative in two of the past three years.