Indian family drug firm turns world-beater

IF the stock market is any guide, Sharvil Patel has just inherited one of the top generic drug manufacturers in the world. Now, he just has to figure out how to keep it that way. Even as the copycat drug business reeled from increased regulatory scrutiny, withering competition in the United States, or some combination of the two, his family's Cadila Healthcare Ltd seemed to have things worked out.

Under Mr Patel's father, Pankaj, the Indian drugmaker had a major plant cleared of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sanctions - a feat that many of…