Toronto -- Leslie Dan, founder, chairman and CEO of the Novopharm Group of Companies — one of Canada's largest manufacturers of generic drugs — has been named recipient of the Distinguished Business Alumnus Award by the University of Toronto Joseph L. Rotman Faculty of Management.

Mr. Dan, who completed his MBA degree at the U of T in 1959, will receive the award at a gala dinner in his honour at the school's Joseph L. Rotman Centre for Management on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The award is the highest honour bestowed upon graduates of the Faculty of Management.

The award is given to a business school graduate who has demonstrated extraordinary achievement and leadership in his or her field, and who has made a significant contribution to his or her community.

"Leslie Dan exemplifies the kind of leader who has an enormously positive impact on society through his many achievements in business and in his charitable and community endeavors," said Hugh J. Arnold, dean of the Joseph L. Rotman Faculty of Management. "He serves as a wonderful role model for his fellow U of T alumni, current students, and the entire Canadian business community."

Novopharm, based in Scarborough, Ont., is a privately held Canadian corporation that now employs over 3,000 people worldwide, with a staff of over 235 devoted to research and development, including innovative new drugs. With annual Canadian sales exceeding $300 million and global sales approaching $600 million, Novopharm manufactures more than 4.5 billion tablets and capsules per year to fill more than 35 million prescriptions. Today, more prescriptions are filled with Novopharm products than those of any other pharmaceutical company in Canada.

From the beginning, Mr. Dan built his firm on its vision of quality products and service at a reasonable price.

Leslie Dan came to Canada from his native Hungary by way of Germany in 1947 as a young war refugee. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto School of Pharmacy in 1954. After graduating from U of T business school in 1959, Mr. Dan started a distribution company, called Interpharm, at which time he introduced his first product, Calmex sleeping tablets.

Novopharm Limited, which Mr. Dan began six year later, started by producing a generic version of the antibiotic tetracycline in a rented warehouse. The firm has since expanded its product line to over 380 products.

As part of his philosophy of giving, Mr. Dan founded the Canadian Medicine Aid Programme (CAN-MAP) in 1985, an organization which provides life saving medicines and other aid to the sick in the Third World. Since 1990, Novopharm has donated more that $10 million in pharmaceuticals to various countries through CAN-MAP.

Mr. Dan was recently appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada. He was also conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from both Dalhousie University in May 1996 and the University of British Columbia in June 1995.

Mr. Dan sits on the Board of governors of Doctors Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital, and on the Rotman Research Institute Committee at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. In addition, Mr. Dan supports a wide range of health oriented programs, including the Dan Family Chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, the Novopharm/Stanley Chair in Pharmacy a the University of British Columbia, the Samuel Lunenfield Research Foundation at Mount Sinai Hospital, Casey House, a Toronto AIDS hospice, and numerous other pharmacy programs in Canada.