Based in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, The Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical Laboratories, currently Cipla was founded by Khwaja Abdul Hamied in the year 1935.

Dr. K A Hameid gave the company all his patent and proprietary formulas for several drugs and medicines, without charging any royalty. On August 17, 1935, Cipla was registered as a public limited company with an authorised capital of Rs 6 lakhs. Cipla started markeing its product on September 22, 1937.

Today, Cipla is a leading player in anti-infective and anti-asthmatic formulations. The company also specializes in the manufacturing of steroids and hormones. Cipla manufactured ampicillin for the first time in the country in 1968. In 1983, Cipla developed two anticancer drugs, vinblastine and vincristine from the common garden plant Vinca rosea in association with the National Chemical Laboratory.

The company pioneered the manufacture of the antiretroviral drug, zidovudine, in technological collaboration with Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in 1993. In 1997 Cipla became the first company in the world by launching transparent Rotahaler, a dry powder inhaler device. In 1998 the company launched lamivudine, and became one of the few companies in the world to offer all three component drugs of retroviral combination therapy (zidovudine and stavudine already launched).Cipla received clearance from the Drugs Controller General of India to manufacture and market the country's first non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), nevirapine, for the treatment of AIDS.