Indian pharma leaders push innovation at scale through partnerships, R&D and AI

India’s pharmaceutical industry is targeting the next phase of growth through complex and innovative products at scale while adopting capabilities such as artificial intelligence. Industry leaders said Indian drugmakers must evolve beyond traditional generic manufacturing as geopolitical headwinds, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory pressures intensify.

Affordability will continue to define India’s pharmaceutical identity, according to the managing director of a major drugmaker and president of an industry body, who said the industry’s next milestone is to build “innovation at scale.” He said this transformation will not happen in isolation and that companies must increasingly rely on co-development partnerships, licensing agreements, and strategic collaborations. By combining global alliances with domestic capabilities, Indian pharma can move up the value chain while maintaining cost competitiveness.

The executive chairman of another large drugmaker said the sector has yet to achieve true “innovation at scale” and urged companies to shift strategic focus from making products “cheaper and better” to delivering therapies “faster and better.” He said unfamiliarity with new decision-making frameworks required in innovative drug development has contributed to the gap, and that broader industry confidence will follow as more companies succeed in innovation-driven ventures.

The managing director of another manufacturer said the industry needs multiple examples of successful innovation-led business models to inspire wider transformation. He cited the success of out-licensing a promising drug molecule as evidence that Indian firms can generate globally relevant intellectual property, not just manufacture generics for overseas markets.

A whole-time director at another company said research spending remains insufficient to drive breakthrough innovation and predicted significant transformation over the coming decade. He said companies must increase R&D investments, build deeper global partnerships, strengthen quality systems, and integrate advanced technologies such as AI, adding that quality will remain non-negotiable as companies pursue higher-value products and regulated markets.

A separate market study said the co-development partnering terms and agreements in pharma, biotech and diagnostics market was valued at approximately USD 78.5 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to reach USD 165.2 billion by 2033, growing at a 7.7% CAGR from 2025 to 2033. The study said biopharmaceutical companies are increasingly prioritizing collaborative partnership models to accelerate time-to-market and distribute capital risks, with key growth drivers including advancement in regulatory frameworks supporting collaborative development pathways, proliferation of specialized biotech firms, and increased emphasis on risk-sharing partnership structures.

The study said the market’s growth is driven by escalating drug development costs exceeding $2.6 billion per approved therapeutic, artificial intelligence platforms, high-throughput screening technologies, genomics-enabled target identification, and accelerated approval frameworks requiring collaborative evidence generation. It also said venture capital deployments exceed $60 billion annually across the biotech sector.

Collectively, the remarks from industry leaders pointed to a strategic turning point for Indian pharma, with generics remaining a strong foundation while future growth increasingly depends on complex biologics, specialty therapies, and innovation-driven pipelines.