Fire In The Blood

Fire in the Blood

As the HIV epidemic in the early eighties spread across the world the fears of AIDS and death gripped the entire literate populace .This fear was terrible for there was no cure for this ghastly venereal scourge. It was like plague since it was expected to wipe out populations especially the promiscuous and the drug users.

The first victim is debatable and some think that it was basically a simian virus that mutated as we eventually discovered that it was a virion that infects the index case. The sex workers formed a pool of contagion and due to rapid centralization of populations into cities by migration the disease became a pandemic. The African continent was worst affected due to poverty illiteracy and alienation from developed and developing worlds.

It is at this time Antiretroviral drugs were rapidly discovered one after another due to some  elite companies already dealing with viral diseases, Amantadine being a prototype. As the molecular structure of the virus infecting the lymphocytes was deciphered different groups of antiviral were synthesized and ART became available between 1990 to 2000 even in developing nations, as patent laws were not applicable in these countries especially India.

India has been a hub of Chemical industry with Bengal a forerunner .Chemistry was a very popular subject amongst the Bhadralok  and there were many stalwarts who were synthesizing fine chemicals like Bengal Chemicals and East India Pharmaceutical as Tropical School Of Hygiene had a great tradition of drug innovations. Subsequent establishments like the UDCT, IITs CSIR, NCL churned  high quality professionals but during preindependance days it was a Bombay based company called Chemical,Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories set up by Dr K.Hamied which was a leader in Mumbai which manufactured drugs for the British Army for supply in Second World war. Another was GIPLA but CIPLA became a champion for drug manufacture and naturally Bombay became capital for pharmaceuticals, Baroda coming next.

Having done some stint at this company, I was aware of its great heritage with Mahatma Gandhi visiting this facility and appreciating it. The company had cutting edge drug development history and knowhow, and Dr Yusuf a qualified and trained Pharmaceutical chemist heading this organization proved to be a great boon. But marketing was weak .In 1980s this department was strengthened and then there was no looking back. With new technology coming in quickly and money pouring in due to their  strength in Respiratory drug segment ,the company started daring into new ventures. A respiratory clinical research centre and its foray into agriculture with Dr Bammi to develop plant based products with facilities for drug research in Bangalore was feather in cap. Ciplas basket was one of the widest and with help of M.K.Hamied and deceased Shri Amar Lulla a finance wizard CIPLA became a household name with their stocks touching all time high in pharma industry. Modern management putting systems and controls in place was done with pioneering effort of Dr Punshi.Cipla then forayed into foreign markets bringing much needed foreign exchange. They became strong exporters to almost 200 countries of the world.

With all this, one strength was almost an essence of the company: social cause and responsibility.Cipla discovered this long before the word Corporate Social Responsibility came into existence. They had started a hospice for the terminal sick at Pune and donated freely for any social cause without reservations and many took advantage of this magnanimity. With a solid presence in various segments Cipla  then entered the generic market to satisfy a need of bringing in drugs cheaply to the lower segments and economically weak. They were now competing with locals and multinationals and soon Cipla became an International company and a household name in every nook and corner of the world.

With this image and love and respect gained from doctors and consumers alike, CIPLA went into antiretrovirals sensing the need and appreciating their own abilities. Meanwhile a sinister picture was emerging on the HIV and AIDS front in Africa whereas the drug costs were coming down in India they refused to come down in US and Africa .This had two reasons one was Indian governmental policy with patent laws and second was capitalization of health care industry by US governments and WTO .Millions of dollars were being pumped into US government to fund elections and to keep economic hegemony ongoing. This strongly prevented entry of cheaper drugs into Africa and European drug cartels prevented any technology transfer for drug manufacture into Africa.

At this time a South African white Judge who was a victim to HIV, a Journalist who was dying due to non availability of drugs, a Clinician dealing with HIV disease and AIDS and an AIDS drug activist who refused to take drugs even though he was likely to succumb to AIDS till affordable drugs were available to the poorest emerged as a strong alliance to lead  social movements in major cities of Africa protesting against Multinationals and Governments to  embargo drugs entering Africa leading to painful death to millions. Doctors beyond Frontiers were their ally too and so was Dr Yusuf Hamied chairman of CIPLA . For Dr Hamied knew one thing, that to remain in drug industry one has to innovate and innovation need not be only scientific, it can be socioeconomic too.

Dr Hamied was approached by concerned people who had patronage from Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Ex President Clinton .Dr Hamied studied the case and offered monthly drug for Dollar 300 a month against  1500 to 200 a month. He approached the European Union who disregarded this idea but the players were firm and finally after battling the embargo for 4 years the US senate gave its go ahead loosening their policy and giving its green signal for import of technology for African governments to manufacture AIDS drugs saving thousands of life and stopping cascading forward transmissions.

Fire in Blood is a 2 hour Documentary film by Brian Dylan made by inputs from Ex Pfizer and other Pharma honchos. It pictures the profiles of victim and their lifestyles due to the ravages of the disease not only in Africa but India too. The film is a tribute to Dr Y.K.Hamied who deserves the highest honors in Medicine and Health not because of drug discovery but because of Social Innovation for it is his exemplary decisions which will be realized as a greatest step to bring the Pandemic of HIV AIDS in control across boundaries of nations and their political limitations. It is this humanitarian cause which made the world sit-up and take notice of egalitarian initiative adopted by CiPLA ad Dr Hamied rather than working into a very clichéd concept of Social Responsibility through current fabricated entities termed as NGOs