Emcurean September, 2022
Steering Zuventus Towards Success
Passionate, determined, and focused are the virtues that describe Prakash Guha but do not define him. He has grown from strength to strength in the pharma industry and carved a space for Zuventus, an entity that he co-founded with Mr. Satish Mehta, over two decades ago. Reminiscing his early days, he shared that in 2002, he and some of his colleagues decided to become a part of Emcure, while working autonomously. This led to the germination of the present day, 1000 crore business - Zuventus.
Humble Beginnings: In the initial phase, when these budding entrepreneurs were contemplating various ideas, Mr. Satish Mehta, Founder and CEQ, Emcure Group, came into the picture. That is when Zuventus began to take shape. Mr. Guha avers, “To start with, Zuventus got a few brands worth 12-15 crore from Emcure to Zuventus. At that time, these brands were not that big, but we thought we needed a vehicle to move before we could steer towards success. Later, we started launching our own brands.”
People Power: One thing that has remained constant between then and now for Zuventus, is its people. Company's employee strength has grown ten folds from a starting count of 350 to a 3,500 strong workforce. Zuventus has seen many ups and downs, and Mr. Guha firmly believes that it wouldn't have been possible to reach current heights without the outstanding team at Zuventus, who are ready to fight every situation and bounce back.
When the world was grappling with the COVID-19 crisis, Zuventus was one of the few companies that remained buoyant. Mr. Guha shared, “Some of our brands did well and turned the tide in our favour. The marketing team, sales force, and all other functions played a crucial role during these times.
Zuventus became a household name with products like Zinconia and Scavista used for the treatment of COVID. While we have built a strong product portfolio, | believe the success wouldn't have come without the hard work and dedication of every Zuventian.”
Diverse Portfolio: Emcure's research and development capabilities have helped Zuventus launch many new molecules and products, many of which were introduced for the first time in India. “The diversified product portfolio helped Zuventus build a strong position in the market. We have established a strong position in the majority of the therapies in which we have apresence.”
Zuventus currently has four major divisions. The largest of them is the multispecialty division. Second is Grow Max, which is a specialty division in gastro as well as respiratory. Then is Odenea and finally, the cardio diabetic division, which is a lifestyle division. There are two other divisions of generics and vaccines where itis increasing its presence.