Beyond The Border With Robert J. Coury

There are those who dream big and other who dream even bigger. Take the case of Robert J. Coury.  Mylan Laboratories, Inc. was the third largest generic drug company in the U.S. when Coury became its CEO. You may think Coury was planning to make the company the number one generic drug maker in the U.S. He had other plans though. Under his leadership the company went beyond the U.S. border on its way to becoming the third largest generic drug company in the world.

Prior to joining Mylan, Coury was running his own company being the principal of Coury Consulting. This was a boutique business advisory business he established in 1989. He also ran a financial and estate planning firm called The Coury Financial Group.

Since 1995 Coury had been a strategic advisor for Mylan. His career became fully involved with the company when he was elected to the company’s board of directors in February of 2002. Coury was subsequently made the vice chairman of the board and CEO in September 2002. He held this post until the end of 2011.

Before going outside of the U.S., Coury worked on having a strong domestic base for Mylan. The company’s manufacturing capacity was doubled and research and development increased.  The company also worked with policy makers so that there would be a more level playing field for generic drug makers.

Then in 2007, Mylan under Coury’s leadership made its big move. The company bought Matrix Laboratory a major producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients based in India. After a bidding war Mylan gained the global generics business of Merck KGaA of Germany.  These strategic acquisitions turned Mylan into the third largest generics drug maker in the world.

The company now has over 1,000 products and does business in over 150 countries and territories.  Mylan has a very impressive presence in the U.S. where one out of every 11 prescription dispensed whether branded or generic is filled with its product.

Robert Coury now sits as the executive chairman of the publicly traded company.