History
Mr. Jagdish Saxena, the founder of Elder, calls himself an entrepreneur by accident. The most aspiring attribute of Mr. Jagdish Saxena are his affable style and his very affectionate leanings towards his employees.
In 1960 while he served the Indian Air Force, he had never imagined of establishing his own company. The turning point came when he decided to leave the defence job to join Tata Fison in the year 1964. There was no stopping from then as he had a meteoric rise in the corporate sector and rose to become the Managing Director of Walter Bushnell till the year 1988.

Elder Saga Unfolds
In 1988 Mr. Jagdish Saxena was forced into entrepreneurship when the company he was working for shut down its pharma division leaving 300 personnel jobless. With the existing base of people putting together some savings and loans from banks and friends, Mr. Saxena started Elder Pharmaceuticals. The initial years were of great struggle.

Elder started out with two or three products in antibiotics and other therapeutic areas. The real turning point came when Mr.Saxena hit upon the idea of producing calcium supplements from natural sources and that is how Shelcal was born. It was a product that nobody was willing to sell and everyone said it would fail. But by the second year, with all marketing efforts it took off. It became clear that Elder were selling a treatment and not just calcium.
Today the company boasts of 2,600 Elderites. The family tradition fostered in the company is a great strength that puts the organization in a very different league. Elder boasts of seven factories and is continuously expanding the manufacturing capacity through brownfield and greenfield expansions. Through its strategic international alliances are looking at launching many more brands in the chronic and niche segments. Elder’s vision is to reach Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) by 2010.

Milestones

Year Elder Over the Years 2007 Negotiated a 51% stake in Bulgaria’s Biomeda Group 2007 NeutraHealth acquisition, we acquired 20.0 per cent. Of the share capital of NeutraHealth Plc (“NeutraHealth”) 2007 Commissioned Paonta Sahib Plant 2006 Commisioned plant in Nepal 2006 Joint-Venture with Universal Group of Companies, Nepal 2005 Commisioned Selaqui Plant 2004 Tie-Up with Bioagra, France 2003 Patalganga Bulk Drug Plant Commissioned 2000 Tie-up with Paul Hartmann 2000 Elder registered as a Public Limited Company 1998 Tie-up with Fujisawa 1994 Tie-up with Haw Par, Singapore 1994 Export House Recognition 1993 Export Certificate of Merit 1992 Chemixoil Certificate of Merit 1991 R & D recognition from Gov of India 1989 First Factory at Nerul commissioned 1989 Mr. Jagdish Saxena sets up Elder Pharma in Mumbai