American Pie: Vinita Gupta

Vinita Gupta
42, Group President & CEO, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc
(New on BT's Most Powerful list)

For Vinita Gupta - daughter of Desh Bandhu Gupta, the founder of pharma major Lupin - life in the United States means there are no servants around and she needs to pick up her household groceries from the supermarket like everyone else. So Gupta's favourite away-from-work activity - to go yachting on her husband Brij Sharma's boat - is well-earned considering that she has almost singlehandedly shown the world how India can succeed in the market for branded drugs in the United States.

The success story of Suprax, an anti-infective, is inspiring. Gupta had been planning the US strategy for Lupin since she started working for it in 1992. Lupin had filed for making a generic version of the drug and was preparing for launch when Wyeth, the company that held the rights to sell Suprax in the US market, decided to stop promoting it.

Biggest achievement in 2010: The only Indian company in the US Top 10 prescription drug firms Being a powerful woman is important because: Young women need to believe there are no limits to their potential Tip for work-life balance: Prioritise what is important at work and at home A workplace without women is: Devoid of the insights women can offer

This meant that by the time the Lupin generic entered the market, doctors would have shifted to other alternatives. Lupin took the leap of faith, and relaunched Suprax two years after it had gone out of the market.

"Everybody thought we were crazy, but it has transformed the way Indian pharma companies do business in the US," says Gupta. Today Lupin ranks ninth in prescription sales in the US (branded plus generics) and is the only Indian company in the top 10. It is also the fifth-largest in generics sales in the US.
-Suman Layak

The 30 Most Powerful Women
1. Schauna Chauhan 2. Zarin Daruwala 3. Lynn de Souza 4. Tanya Dubash 5. Shyamala Gopinath 6. Vinita Gupta 7. Kaku Nakhate 8. Vedika Bhandarkar 9. Manisha Girotra 10. Lalita Gupte 11. Usha Narayanan 12. Akhila Srinivasan 13. Leena Nair 14. Vinita Bali 15. Chanda Kochhar	16. Roopa Kudva 17. Naina Lal Kidwai 18. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 19. Zarina Mehta 20. Zia Mody 21. Kalpana Morparia 22. Vishakha Mulye 23. Swati Piramal 24. Meher Pudumjee 25. Madhabi Puri Buch 26. Chitra Ramkrishna 27. Preetha Reddy 28. Shikha Sharma 29. Mallika Srinivasan 30. Sangeeta Talwar