Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (born 23 March 1953) is an Indian businesswoman who founded Biocon, India’s largest biopharmaceutical company. A trained master brewer, she started Biocon in 1978 in the garage of a rented house in Bangalore with a small amount of capital, making industrial enzymes. Over four decades she turned it into a global maker of insulin, cancer drugs and biosimilars. She is one of India’s best-known self-made women entrepreneurs and a leading philanthropist in health care.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw |
| Born | 23 March 1953, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India |
| Age | 73 |
| Education | B.Sc. Zoology, Bangalore University; master’s in malting and brewing, Ballarat College, Australia |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Known for | Founder and chairperson of Biocon |
| Spouse | John Shaw (m. 1998; d. 2022) |
| Honours | Padma Shri (1989), Padma Bhushan (2005) |
Early Life
Kiran Mazumdar was born in Bangalore to a Gujarati mother, Yamini, and a Bengali father, Rasendra Mazumdar, who was the head brewer at United Breweries. She went to Bishop Cotton Girls’ School and Mount Carmel College and graduated in zoology from Bangalore University in 1973. She had hoped to study medicine, but on her father’s advice she went to Ballarat College in Australia and qualified as a master brewer in 1975, topping her course.
Career
Back in India she found that breweries would not hire a woman as head brewer. She worked as a consultant before meeting Leslie Auchincloss, the founder of the Irish company Biocon Biochemicals, who wanted to start a business in India. In 1978 they set up Biocon India, with Mazumdar holding most of the Indian venture, starting in a garage with ₹10,000. Its first products were enzymes extracted from papaya and fish used in brewing and food processing. Banks were reluctant to lend to a young woman, and she had trouble hiring staff at first.
Biocon moved into biotechnology and medicines in the 1990s. In 1998 Mazumdar-Shaw bought out the stake held by Unilever, which had acquired the Irish partner, making Biocon an independent Indian company. She set up Syngene, a research services subsidiary, in 1993. Biocon launched human insulin made in India and listed on the stock market in 2004, with a share sale that was heavily oversubscribed and made her one of India’s richest women.
Biocon became a leading maker of biosimilars, lower-cost versions of biological medicines. In 2017 its biosimilar version of the breast cancer drug trastuzumab, developed with Mylan, became one of the first biosimilars from India approved in the United States. In 2022 Biocon Biologics bought the biosimilars business of the American firm Viatris. Mazumdar-Shaw has also been an outspoken voice on Bengaluru’s civic problems and on affordable health care.
Philanthropy
Mazumdar-Shaw has signed the Giving Pledge, committing to give away most of her wealth. She funded the Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre and its cancer centre at Narayana Health in Bengaluru and supports public health programmes through the Biocon Foundation.
Personal Life
In 1998 she married John Shaw, a Scottish businessman who later became vice-chairman of Biocon. He died in October 2022. The couple had no children.
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw born?
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was born on 23 March 1953 in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India and is 73 years old.
What is Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw known for?
Known for: Founder and chairperson of Biocon.
What honours has Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw received?
Padma Shri (1989), Padma Bhushan (2005).
Featured image: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw delivers the 25th Intelligence Bureau Centenary Endowment Lecture, New Delhi, 22 December 2012. Photo by Ministry of Home Affairs, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
