From High School Dropout to Hyderabad Richest Businessman: The Remarkable Journey of a Teen Entrepreneur

From High School Dropout to Hyderabad Richest Businessman: From High School Dropout to Hyderabad's Richest Businessman: Dr Murali Krishna Prasad Divi's resilience and strategic decisions have made Divi's Labs a leading API manufacturer.

The US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) slapped an import alert on Divi's Laboratories' Visakhapatnam manufacturing facility in 2017.

Their largest supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for drugs such as naproxen (osteoarthritis), dextromethorphan (cough suppressant), gabapentin (antidepressant), and levetiracetam (epilepsy) was the Hyderabad-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).

Dr Murali Krishna Prasad Divi, founder and managing director of Divi's Labs, was granted exemptions by the US Food and Drug Administration, and the import alert was lifted within six months.

"We have mastered the chemistry to the point where others have a hard time getting into our products," Divi says.

Today, Divi's Lab is among the top three API manufacturers in the world. This success has made Divi, who's from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, rich. During COVID-19, his wealth peaked at around Rs 75,000 crore in October 2021 after Divi's Labs' stock hit its all-time high of Rs 5,425 per share, thanks to a one-time opportunity in antiviral drug Molnupiravir.

Divi owns nearly 52% of the company, which went public in 2003 with an IPO and offer for sale.

But this success did not come without its dose of failure. Dr Divi flunked not only his 12th exam but also his first-year BPharm exam. After tasting failure, he earned his BPharm with distinction, followed by his MPharm, and joined Warner Hindustan in 1975. He was offered a job at Uniloids a few years later after leaving Indian Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd to start his own company. With just USD 7 in his pocket, Dr Divi headed to the US to try his luck. "Back then, you could only carry foreign exchange abroad."

He founded Divi's Laboratories, a greenfield API plant in Nalgonda, for Rs 71 crore, in 1983 with Dr Reddy.

Divi's Labs, founded by Kiran S Divi, specializes in chemistry and APIs for global pharmaceutical companies. They avoid litigation, patent violations, and competition with customers. Divi's Labs complements innovator customers and doesn't compete with generics. It works with eight of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world.

In cash and debt-free, the company has about Rs 4,000 crore. Green chemistry principles, including peptides like GLP-1 (glutides), can lead to a blockbuster for big pharma.

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