In the early 1990s, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries was just a ₹9-crore company when founder Dilip Shanghvi asked well-known Indian scientist PM Bhargava to advise him on research and build a sound scientific base.

“One day, Dilip called me to say he wanted to acquire two floors of a four-floor building in Vadodara to set up his R&D centre. I told him he should acquire the entire building. He said he didn’t have the required money. I advised him to wait till he had funds. Within a few weeks, he came back and said the building was acquired,” Bhargava, who advised the Sun Group for over a decade, told Business Line .

This acquisition led to the birth of Sun Pharma Advanced Research Co (SPARC), one of the first fully independent Indian R&D centres. At least 9 per cent of the company’s turnover (quite high in 1995) was invested on research by Sun Pharma. It was one of the first drug-makers to realise the importance of big investments in research, addedBhargava, who is the Founder Director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

Commenting on Sun acquiring Ranbaxy Laboratories, he said: “It will be good for the Indian pharma sector. Sun is one of the most ethical companies I know. With the acquisition of Ranbaxy, it will scale greater heights.”

Ranbaxy promoters’ decision to sell the company to Japan-based Daiichi Sankyo was a mistake, said Bhargava, who had also advised former Ranbaxy Chairman and Managing Director Parvinder Singh and his research chief JM Khanna. The ₹11, 400-crore Sun Pharma now has a SPARC-II and its R&D investments are to the tune of ₹676 crore, or 6 per cent of sales turnover.

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