Bangalore, India, January 22, 2014  

Biocon Ltd, Asia's premier biotechnology company, announced today that its Chairperson and Managing Director, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, will be conferred the 2014 Othmer Gold Medal – the top award  of U.S.-based 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.

Acknowledging Ms Shaw's outstanding contribution to the Indian Biotech sector,  Carsten Reinhardt, President and CEO, Chemical Heritage Foundation said,  "Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was the first woman to become a brew master in India. Then she used her knowledge of fermentation to become one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of her nation. In addition to her great success in business, she is among the world's leading philanthropists. She has devoted much of her personal fortune to providing healthcare to the poorest people in her country and to many other philanthropic projects."

Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw will be the 20th recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal and the third woman to receive CHF's most coveted award. CHF established the Othmer Gold Medal in 1997 to honor 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.

Expressing her delight, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson Biocon, said, "I feel privileged  to receive this prestigious honour and join the distinguished list of previous recipients like James Watson, Ahmed Zawail, Robert Langer and many others from whom I have drawn great inspiration and deeply admired”. 

Under Ms. Mazumdar Shaw’s stewardship Biocon has evolved into India's largest biotech company committed to innovation and affordability to deliver world class therapeutics to patients across the globe.

A pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India, Ms. Mazumdar Shaw has made her country proud with a globally recognized bio-pharma enterprise - Biocon.

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 Société 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.

Previous honorees of the Othmer Gold Medal are John D. Baldeschwieler, Arnold O. Beckman, Ronald C. D. Breslow, Thomas Cech, Carl Djerassi, Marye Anne Fox, Mary Lowe Good, Harry B. Gray, George S. Hammond, Jon M. Huntsman, Kazuo Inamori, Ralph Landau, Robert S. Langer, Yuan Tse Lee, Gordon E. Moore, P. Roy Vagelos, James D. Watson, George Whitesides, and Ahmed Zewail.

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