Leslie Lewis Dan, (born November 26, 1929), is a Canadian- Hungarian businessman and pharmacist. The founder of

Novopharm Teva Canada is one of Canada's largest generic pharmaceutical companies. The company was founded as Novopharm by Leslie Dan in 1965. After its acquisition by pharmaceutical giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in 2000, it was renamed Teva Novoph ...

, a successful generic pharmaceutical company which he subsequently sold to

Teva Pharmaceuticals Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (also known as Teva Pharmaceuticals) is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel. It specializes primarily in generic drugs, but other business interests include ...

. A noted

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, Dan has been awarded the prestigious Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario for his charitable efforts.

Early life

Born in Budapest, Dan came to Canada in 1947. As a teenage Jew, he survived the Holocaust by using false identity papers. He came to Canada in 1947 and graduated from the University of Toronto School of Pharmacy in 1954 obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree. He completed his Master of Business Administration degree in 1959. In 1960, he founded a company which distributed over-the-counter drugs.

Business ventures

In 1965, he founded

. In 2000 when he sold the company to Israel's

for an estimated $430 million, it had sales of $750 million and employed 3,000 people. He then started a new company, Viventia (formerly Novopharm Biotech), which specializes in the discovery and development of products for the treatment of cancer. He is currently the chairman. As of April 2021, he has an estimated net worth of $1.04 billion dollars (approximately $830 million USD), making him the 91st richest person in Canada.

Philanthropy

Dan is well known as a philanthropist. His perspective on helping others is formed out of faith in truths from the Jewish Torah and Talmud. From the latter, Dan has noted writings in the Bava Bathra chapters, including: "Charity is equal in importance to all other commandments combined." And, "Who gives charity in secret is greater than Moses." His donations include: *He donated $15 million to the University of Toronto to fund the

Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building The Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy is a pharmacy school and an academic division of the University of Toronto. The faculty is located on the northwestern corner of College Street and University Avenue, placing it across from the Ontario Legisl ...

and the

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy The Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy is a pharmacy school and an academic division of the University of Toronto. The faculty is located on the northwestern corner of College Street (Toronto), College Street and University Avenue (Toronto), Universi ...

*He founded the

Canadian Medicine Aid Programme Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

(CAN-MAP) in 1985. This organization provides life-saving medicines and other aid to the sick in the Third World *He has donated to Yad Vashem

Honours

His honours include: *Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS) Leadership Award in 2012 *The University of Toronto

, designed by Sir Norman Foster and completed in 2006, is named in his honour. *In 1996, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and awarded the Order of Ontario. *He received an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

in 1996 and the University of British Columbia in 1995. *In 1997, he received the Distinguished Business Alumnus Award by the University of Toronto Joseph L. Rotman Faculty of Management. * Aish HaTorah's Dan Family Building is named in his honour.

Family

He married Judith in 1958. She died in 1995. They had three children, Dr. Michael D. Dan,

Aubrey Dan Aubrey Dan (born October 4, 1963) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist as well as a producer and impresario. He is the son of Leslie Dan, a Canadian entrepreneur and founder of the generic pharmaceutical manufacturer Novopharm. He gradua ...

, and Andrea Dan-Hytman. He married Anna in 1996. They share no children. Aubrey Dan is president of Dancap Private Equity and Andrea Dan-Hytman is co-owner of Viventia Biotech Inc.

References