Dr Anji Reddy passes away

Hyderabad: A well acknowledged pioneer of drug discovery and founder chairman of Dr Reddy's Labs, Dr Kallam Anji Reddy passed away on Friday. He was 73. Suffering from liver cancer for quite some time, he was admitted to Apollo Hospitals recently. The end came at 3.45 am. He is survived by wife Samrajyam, daughter Anuradha and son K Satish Reddy. The Government of India honoured him with Padma Bhushan in 2011 for his services in taking the pharma industry global.

Dr Reddy, who put Hyderabad on the map of world pharma industry and spearheaded its development in the state, was held in high esteem by the scientific community dealing with pharmaceutical products for the significant contributions made by him for the industry. He is known for the success in his effort to provide pharmaceutical products at an affordable price to the common man while making them globally competitive. He had for the past few years been withdrawing himself from major responsibilities of the company after entrusting both his son and son- in- law with key responsibilities.

His son K Satish Reddy is presently the managing director and COO of the company while his son-in-law G V Prasad is the Vice -Chairman and CEO of the company. He believed in the simple philosophy of taking the highway instead of lanes and by- lanes to reach the destination and it suited him well in every endeavor. A pall of gloom descended on Tadepalli, a tiny village in Guntur district, where he hailed from, as people came to know about his death this morning.