Indravadan Ambalal Modi (18 February 1926 – 26 November 2012)[1] was an Indian pharmaceuticals industrialist who founded Cadila PharmaceuticalsinAhmedabad. He is popularly known as the 'Medicine Man of India' for his contribution to the pharmaceutical industry of India post independence.[2]
Modi co-founded Cadila Laboratories in 1951 along with his childhood friend Raman Patel to offer cheaper drugs in India. In 1995, the company split into two separate entities; Raman Patel formed Cadila Healthcare while Modi named his company Cadila Pharmaceuticals.[3]
Post independence, India was dominated by multinational drug making companies. There were few Indian drug manufacturing facilities in the market.[5] Modi, in 1952, quit his job and established Cadila Laboratories with his close friend, Ramanbhai Patel, a pharmacy professor. They pooled in their resources to start making vitamins to treat Anemia, a disease prevalent in India at that time.[6] In the early days, his wife and grandmother helped out in the company. He would take out Rs. 250 for his monthly expenses and would invest the rest into the business. Cadila started developing innovative products such as Livirubra and Cadila Gripe and formulations such as Isopar for treatment of TB. The company focused on providing innovative products every two years.[5] In 1967, Cadila set up its first factory. In 1970, R&D activities started happening in the company.[5]
While Modi was one of the founder of the company, his wife, Shilaben was the first employee of Cadila Laboratories.[7] She would wash and label the product herself from a 3-room apartment in Azad Society that was taken on rent for Cadila Laboratories. She inspired her husband to enter into the business of Gripe Water, the first indigenous Gripe Water made in the country.[7]
In the year 1995, Cadila Laboratories split up into Cadila Pharmaceuticals and Cadila Healthcare. Modi, owner of Cadila Pharmaceuticals, brought in his son, Rajiv Modi to take care of the business.[6]
In the year 1943, Modi's cousin died due to severe illness at the age of 18, due to lack of proper healthcare. Using this as an inspiration, he set up a Kakaba and Kala-Budh Public Charitable Trust under the Bombay Public Charitable Trust Act. Under this, he set up a 30-bed hospital in the village of Hansot to provide modern healthcare facilities to those who cannot afford it at one-third of the original rates.[5]
The trust also aids and Gujarat Government's rural development programs.
In his last days, Indravadan Modi developed a lung disease which started deteriorating and was put on a ventilator for the last 9 days. On November 26, 2012, Indravadan Modi succumbed to the infection. He was cremated in Cadila's campus of Dholka, near Ahmedabad.[12]
