He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour by Government of India in 2005.

Hamied has been a major benefactor to Cambridge. In 2009 the Yusuf Hamied Centre was opened at Christ’s College. The centre features a bronze portrait bust of Hamied by fellow Christ’s College alumnus, Anthony Smith. The college also has a Todd-Hamied Fellow in chemistry, since 1986 Professor Chris Abell, FRS.

In September 2011, in a piece about how he was trying to radically lower costs of biotech drugs for cancer, diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases, The New York Times wrote of Hamied:

Hamied was awarded the ‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year’ in the category of business by CNN-IBN in 2012 “for taking on multinational pharma companies and making some of the essential drugs more affordable to the masses in the developing countries.” In late 2013, he was also named one of the India’s “25 Greatest Global Living Legends” by news broadcaster NDTV. He was also recently interviewed for the Creating Emerging Markets project at the Harvard Business School, discussing at length his strategies to provide AIDS treatments and other drugs to help treat poor people in the developing world.

In February 2013, Hamied announced his retirement plans from Cipla after remaining managing director of the company for 52 years. That year, Forbes magazine included him in its list of richest Indians.

In January 2016, Forbes estimated Hamied’s net worth at US$1.45 billion.

In 2018 he made a donation to the chemistry department at Cambridge to support the 1702 Chair of Chemistry, the oldest professorship in the subject there, which has been renamed after him as the Yusuf Hamied 1702 Chair. There is also a Hamied Laboratory for Chemical Synthesis & Catalysis in the department, as well as a Todd-Hamied Seminar Room and Todd-Hamied Laboratory, the last two (and the Christ’s fellowship) being a tribute also to Alexander, Lord Todd, Nobel laureate in chemistry, whom Hamied described as ‘my mentor and guide over the years’ since he completed his Ph.D. at Christ’s College with Todd . Todd himself was 1702 Professor from 1944 to 1971, as well as Master of Christ’s.