Dr Navin Saxena, a Ph. D in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the Moscow Friendship University started his career with Unichem Laboratories Research Centre in 1981 as Research Officer and within a short span of 10 years reached the level of Vice President and Head of Research. During his tenure pioneering research was done on life saving molecules like Buprenorphine, Nifedipine and Sucralfate leading to them being developed for the first time in India on a commercial scale. The process patent for Buprenorphine is held under Dr Saxena's name. In 1994 the "entrepreneurial" seed was sown by Dr Saxena and he decided to venture on his own and started Rusan Pharma Ltd. In 1996 he established his own research centre in Mumbai. From a modest team of just 3 people in 1994, Rusan has grown significantly to employ nearly 300 people consisting of a number of Ph D's, post graduates, MBA's and Chartered Accountants.
Chemistry