It's payback time: Kiran Majumdar-Shaw

Kiran Majumdar-Shaw
57, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon
(Number of times in BT's Most Powerful list: 7)

Biggest achievement in 2010: The $350-million insulin deal with Pfizer Being a powerful woman is important because: Women will be change makers and impact society Tip for work-life balance: Take quarterly breaks, develop a hobby and work on it A workplace without women is like: An economy without entrepreneurs

The April-September quarter has been a busy one for Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder of Biocon. She has been travelling across Europe and Asia to meet customers and potential clients, all the while finding new ways to grow her biotechnology business.

A result of the relentless travel was visible in mid-October, when Biocon announced a deal with global pharma giant Pfizer to sell biosimilar insulin products. Biosimilars are versions of innovator biopharma drugs that are produced following patent expiry. The oral insulin products are in stage 3 of clinical trials, and Pfizer gets the rights to commercialise the biosimilar versions worldwide.

For this Biocon pockets a cool $350 million- $250 million upfront. "This deal is a validation of Biocon's capabilities by one of the best names in the business," Mazumdar-Shaw told this writer a day before continuing her globetrotting, this time to Malaysia where she announced a $171-million investment in a biosimilar unit.

-Rahul Sachitanand

The 30 Most Powerful Women
1. Schauna Chauhan 2. Zarin Daruwala 3. Lynn de Souza 4. Tanya Dubash 5. Shyamala Gopinath 6. Vinita Gupta 7. Kaku Nakhate 8. Vedika Bhandarkar 9. Manisha Girotra 10. Lalita Gupte 11. Usha Narayanan 12. Akhila Srinivasan 13. Leena Nair 14. Vinita Bali 15. Chanda Kochhar	16. Roopa Kudva 17. Naina Lal Kidwai 18. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 19. Zarina Mehta 20. Zia Mody 21. Kalpana Morparia 22. Vishakha Mulye 23. Swati Piramal 24. Meher Pudumjee 25. Madhabi Puri Buch 26. Chitra Ramkrishna 27. Preetha Reddy 28. Shikha Sharma 29. Mallika Srinivasan 30. Sangeeta Talwar