Bangalore, India, May 16, 2014  

The first Indian and the 20th recipient of this award

Biocon Ltd, Asia's premier biotechnology company, announced today that its Chairperson and Managing Director, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, received the 'Othmer Gold Medal 2014' on Thursday, May 15, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Established by the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in 1997, the annual award honors outstanding individuals who have made multifaceted contributions to chemical and scientific heritage through outstanding activity in such areas as innovation, entrepreneurship, research, education, public understanding, legislation or philanthropy.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the third woman to receive the Othmer Gold Medal and the first Indian to make it to this prestigious group. Nineteen people have been conferred with this honor till date, including Arnold O. Beckman, Carl Djerassi, Mary Lowe Good, Harry B. Gray, Jon M. Huntsman, Kazuo Inamori, Robert S. Langer, P. Roy Vagelos, James D. Watson, George Whitesides and Ahmed Zewail.

Carsten Reinhardt, President and CEO, CHF, handed over the Foundation's top award to Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw during CHF's Chemical Heritage Day celebration that culminated with the presentation of the Othmer Gold Medal.

The CHF lauded Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's pioneering efforts in biotechnology and for scripting a hugely successful entrepreneurial story by drawing on her knowledge of fermentation science to build Biocon, India's first biopharma company.

Accepting the award, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD - Biocon, said, "I am deeply grateful to the Chemical Heritage Foundation for awarding me the Othmer Gold Medal 2014. This is an honour akin to being invited to join an extraordinary league of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and philanthropists, an emotion that is both proud and humbling at the same time.

As an entrepreneur who is driven by a sense of purpose to make a difference to global healthcare, I take pride in saying that Biocon is contributing to affordable innovation which goes to the core of ensuring a global right to healthcare. In this, we seem to be drawing lessons from Donald Othmer's practical and low-cost approach to innovation."

A pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India, Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw has made her country proud with a globally recognized biopharma enterprise - Biocon.Under her stewardship, Biocon has evolved into India's largest biopharma company committed to innovation and affordability to deliver world class therapeutics to patients across the globe.

About the Othmer Gold Medal:
The medal is presented annually and cosponsored by CHF and four affiliated organizations: the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the Chemists' Club, and the Societe de Chimie Industrielle. The medal commemorates Donald Othmer (1904-1995), noted researcher, consultant, editor, engineer, inventor, philanthropist, professor, and coeditor of the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology.

About the Chemical Heritage Foundation:
The Chemical Heritage Foundation, located in Philadelphia, is a collections-based nonprofit organization that preserves the history and heritage of chemistry, chemical engineering, and related sciences and technologies. The collections are used to create a body of original scholarship that illuminates chemistry's role in shaping society.


For further information, please contact:

Media Relations

Seema Ahuja
Phone: +91 080 2808 2808
Email: seema.ahuja@biocon.com

Rumman Ahamed
Phone: +91 080 2808 2808
Email: rumman.ahmed@biocon.com


Investor Relations

Saurabh Paliwal
Phone: +91 95383 80801
Email: saurabh.paliwal@biocon.com