India’s pharmaceuticals giant Cipla Ltd., headed by the son of a Lithuanian Jewish mother and who was born in Vilnius, is at it once again.

Known for their defiance of Western drug companies in the battle to provide cheaper medications to patients in poorer countries, especial HIV treatments, Yusuf Hamied’s company is now teaming up with the American Cancer Society and pharma corp Pfizer to provide sixteen anti-cancer medications including chemotherapeutics to sufferers in the sub-Saharan countries of Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya in Africa.

Jusuf Hamied inherited the company his Indian father began in Bombay in 1935. The younger Hamied was born in Wilno July 25, 1936. His Lithuanian Jewish mother and Indian father Khwaja Abdul Hamied met in Berlin at the university where they were both doing graduate work. Originally based in Bombay (now Mumbai), Cipla Ltd. now has additional headquarters in Miami, Cape Town, Surrey (UK) and in Belgium, and manufacturing facilities in Goa, Bangalore, Baddi, Kurkumbh, Pune, Patalanga (India) and Sikkim, and field stations in Durban (South Africa), Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune.

Press release in English here.
American Cancer Society