The Hindu Business Line : Pharma majors to slug it out on the cricket field

Top honchos from the Delhi-based Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and the Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Ltd (DRL) will pit against each other in the first Pharma Cup 2004 to be held here during the weekend.

While Ranbaxy's President, Mr Malvinder Singh, will be part of the team, the Dr Reddy's team will receive support from the stands from its Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, Mr Satish Reddy.

Other senior officials such as Mr Arun Sawhney, President, Bulk Actives, Mr Abhijit Mukherjee, President, Custom Chemical Services, Mr V.S. Vasudevan, Executive Vice-President & CFO would be rooting for DRL. The senior management from Ranbaxy will include Mr D.S. Brar, Managing Director and CEO, Dr Brian Tempest, MD and CEO Designate, are expected to support their players.

According to a Ranbaxy spokesperson, "The idea of having a cricket match was floated by Ranbaxy almost a month ago and was quickly latched on to by DRL. Jointly it has been decided to brand the event as Pharma Cup and this will be a yearly competition. Ranbaxy will be hosting the inaugural tournament."

The match would be 25-30 overs a side and in true cricketing tradition, Reebok is associating itself with the tournament. It will be sponsoring a few of the prizes by offering sporting equipment and gift vouchers. In a build up, internal poster campaigns are on in these companies.

Such tournaments are common in the IT sector between biggies such as Infosys and Wipro. However, for the pharma sector this is a new phenomenon.

In terms of market share, Ranbaxy has been clearly ahead of DRL. According to ORG figures available for December 2003, while the total market stood at Rs 1,652.11 crore, Ranbaxy was ahead with a share of Rs 79.28 crore against DRL's Rs 40.71 crore. It would be interesting to watch how they fare on the field.

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