Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran has shattered glass ceilings at every stage of her career, leaving strong footprints in traditionally male-dominated environments. The first woman to become a brew master in India, Kiran used her knowledge of fermentation technologies to build a multi-billion-dollar company, Biocon, which has put the nation on the global biopharmaceuticals map. Her name in India is synonymous with the biotechnology industry and the success that women entrepreneurs can achieve.

Over the past year, she has added more honors, titles, and awards to a long list of achievements, including the 2023 Ban Ki-moon Award for Women Empowerment; 2024 Jamsetji Tata Award from the Indian Society for Quality; BRICS- CCI Business Excellence Award – Entrepreneur of the Year; and Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women in Business Award. 2025 has started where 2024 left off for Kiran as she has already been named as a Fellow Member at the Indian National Science Academy and among the Forbes 50 Over 50 list.

“From the outset, I was driven with the purpose to harness the power of science to create meaningful benefits for society. I was inspired to work in drug development because I saw first-hand the stark inequities in global healthcare as life-saving medicines were often out of reach for those who needed them most. This was unacceptable to me.”

Part of the Power List 2015

That’s the question we posed to ourselves – and then to you – over two months ago, ahead of open nominations and a painstaking judging process. Here, without further ado, we celebrate the answer.

Go to The Power List 2015

Part of the Power List 2016

The nominations are in and after considerable debate and analysis from our judging panel, we present The Power List 2016 – our second foray into the Top 100 most influential people in the world of drug development and manufacture.

Go to The Power List 2016

Part of the Power List 2017

Go to The Power List 2017

Part of the Power List 2018

Bringing new drugs to patients is an incredibly difficult task that involves numerous indispensable actors – from pioneering entrepreneurs and CEOs, to industry experts, to dedicated researchers, to regulators who keep everyone on the right tracks.

Go to The Power List 2018

Part of the Power List 2019

Breakthroughs at the bench, novel technologies and groundbreaking policies and regulation have helped the pharma industry grow from strength to strength. After months of collating reader nominations and judging overseen by a panel of industry experts, we proudly present The Medicine Maker 2019 Power List, featuring 100 of the industry’s pioneers across four categories: Industry Influencers, Business Captains, Masters of the Bench, and Champions of Change.

Go to The Power List 2019