Dinesh Thakur
Founder & Director, Thakur Family Foundation, Inc

Dinesh Thakur
Dinesh S. Thakur is a public health activist focused on improving the quality of affordable medicines across the globe.

His current focus is to improve health policy in the United States and in India. He is an expert and accomplished entrepreneur in pharmaceuticals, biomedical product development, drug regulation, and information technology.

He was recognized with the Joe A. Callaway award for Civic Courage in 2014 and is the recipient of the ACFE’s Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award. He was named Whistleblower of the Year by Taxpayers against Fraud in 2013.

During his career, he held senior positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Ranbaxy Laboratories, and Infosys Technologies. Most recently, he co-founded and was the Chief Executive Officer (2007-2012) of Sciformix Corporation, a Scientific Processing Outsourcing organization that delivers services in the areas of drug safety, biometrics, medical and regulatory writing, and clinical operations.

During 2003-2005, Mr. Thakur was the Director & Global Head, Research Information & Portfolio Management at Ranbaxy Laboratories, India’s largest generic drug manufacturer. He was responsible for managing research and development information for generic drug development, manufacturing, and commercial operations. In addition, he implemented automated systems to capture research and development data for global regulatory submissions, compliance, and manufacturing.

While at Ranbaxy, Mr. Thakur discovered that the company was falsifying drug data and violating current good manufacturing practices and good laboratory practices. He resigned in 2005 after reporting the fraud to company management, and worked with authorities for eight years to unravel the complicated trail of falsified records and dangerous manufacturing practices. In May 2013, Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to multiple criminal felonies and agreed to pay $500 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations of falsified drug data and systemic manufacturing violations resulting in substandard and unapproved drugs. The groundbreaking settlement is the largest of its kind against a generic drug manufacturer.

Thakur received a Bachelors degree in Technology from Osmania University, a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from University of New Hampshire, and graduate training from Syracuse University.