Historically, the pharma and life science industry has been predominantly male dominant in both laboratory and boardroom. Even after a woman acquiring leading positions in different quarters, which the world thought they never would, the pharma and life science industry continues struggling to make progress with gender diversity. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the third largest market in the world in terms of volume as per data of 2016, India accounts for 20 percent of the global generic drugs supply, making it the largest supplier in the world. Still the number of women in managerial positions are low and it is very low when compared to women in leading positions in the industry globally.

The industry who is the supplier of affordable medicines and contributes to a major portion of much-needed foreign exchange earned by our country, fails miserably when it comes to ensuring gender diversity. According to the consulting firm mercer, the female representation in general industry is 15 percent, while in pharmaceutical industry it is 11 percent. The female representation at the entry level in general industry is 27 percent and life sciences is 12 percent. Whereas the percentage of women executive directors in the pharmaceutical industry is only 7.69 percent.

With several global studies pointing to the fact that gender diversity reaps greater financial results, organisations are now increasingly channelising their efforts towards building a gender rich workforce, with a special focus on women in leadership roles. Many companies are taking initiatives to get the trend of getting women employees to participate in larger corporate roles in pharma industry.

In this issue, the Women Entrepreneur magazine brings in to spotlight a list of `Top 10 Women in Pharma and Life Sciences ­ 2021'. This list of ten leading and inspiring women is crafted by a team of CEOs, VCs and the our editorial board, thus delivering inspiring stories of their journey and the contributions & roles played by them in the creation and empowerment of a powerful nation.