Accra (Ghana) Sep 27 (IANS): Gopal Vasu did not leave India to be recognised in Ghana for his work in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the firm that the former oil company executive helped found has been ranked 35th in the list of Ghana's top 100 companies.

The Ghana Club 100 is a grouping of the country's top 100 companies, based on the assessment of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), which examines a company's growth over three years as well as the return on equity and turnover.

Vasu, who has lived in Ghana for 42 years now, changed his career path and is today a director of M&G Phraceuticals. In 2005, he was made honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana.

The former sales executive of oil brand Esso in Jaipur, India, left his home country in 1969 to work for Indian conglomerate Patel Group of Companies in Ghana. He joined their Ashanti Shoe Factory as general manager.

"I worked for the Patel Group for 24 years before, together with some other colleagues, deciding to set up a pharmaceutical company, then one of the priority areas under the Ghana's investment code," he told IANS.

"After fulfilling the requirement of the Ghana Investment Code, we took over M&G Pharmaceuticals in July 1993," he said. "It had been closed down for two and a half years due to managerial and technical problems."

In January 1994, the company began producing four formulations with 12 employees. Today the company employs 183 people and makes 78 products, including tablets, capsules, syrups and suspensions for over 210 buyers.

These buyers include the ministry of health, the Christian Health Association of Ghana and private hospitals throughout the country.

"M&G was selected by the GIPC in 1999 and we were placed at number 74," he said. "Twelve years later, we have moved to the 35th place. This is a great achievement for me and, indeed, everyone within the company."

He is happy to be associated with Ghana's industrial development. "I believe that no country can progress without a strong industrial base," he said. "The most developed countries in the world today are strong because of it."

M&G won an award presented jointly by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and the GIPC as one of the 16 most innovative private enterprises in Ghana in 1995.

The company followed this with the National Quality Awards in the Drug and Chemical Sector in 2005.