Mumbai, July 15, 2026: BCG and HealthKois today released a joint report, ‘Built on Scale, Turning to Science: India’s Pharma and Life Sciences Innovation Opportunity’ that maps the momentum in drug discovery, advanced therapeutics and AI, alongside the structural gaps in capital, clinical trials and R&D that India must close to build a globally competitive innovation engine.
Drawing on 30+ in-depth interviews with founders, pharmaceutical executives, investors and ecosystem leaders across India and global markets, together with analysis of patents, venture investments, innovation pipelines and global datasets, the report finds measurable progress across novel drug assets, advanced therapies, AI-enabled discovery and platform technologies. It arrives at a pivotal moment: the next five years will determine whether India converts its structural strengths in cost, data and scientific talent into a durable innovation engine.
India is already the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical producer by volume, supplies roughly 60% of global vaccines and meets nearly 40% of US demand for generic medicines. The report demonstrates that this scale can anchor a new phase of innovation, by strengthening early-stage capital, translational research, clinical-trial infrastructure and specialist regulatory capacity.
Key findings
Green shoots of innovation are emerging, and momentum is building. India has produced more than 10 novel drug assets over the past decade. PE/VC investment into pharma rose 2.1x in five years to $731 million in FY26, and biotech startups grew from roughly 1,500 to 2,400. The innovation pipeline expanded approximately 1.5x to more than 1,095 drug discovery programs across 195 companies, while pharma patent families originating from India climbed from roughly 716 in 2015 to 2,995 in 2024, lifting India’s share of global pharma patents from 3–4% to about 10%. This shift is qualitative, not just quantitative: Indian companies are moving beyond generics and biosimilars to originate, license, and compete globally.
Four enablers are converging to support India-origin innovation: around $5.0 billion of government funding for early-stage and translational research; a strengthening role for academia through industry partnerships and technology-transfer offices; regulatory reform that has compressed drug-development timelines from 180–270 days to 60–120; and shared R&D and manufacturing infrastructure such as Genome Valley and C-CAMP. Early proof points of lab-to-market translation are already visible — including BIRSA 101, India’s first indigenously developed CRISPR-based therapeutic, and NexCAR19, priced at roughly one-tenth of comparable overseas CAR-T therapies
Companies are pursuing multiple pathways to compete globally. Small molecules account for about 49% of PE/VC investment and 58% of active patents, while AI and digital therapeutics attract around 17% of private capital. Landmark deals signal growing international confidence in India-origin science, including Glenmark’s $700 million upfront licensing agreement with AbbVie (with up to $1.2 billion in milestone payments), partnerships with Almirall and Astria Therapeutics, ImmunoACT’s collaboration with Cipla to take its indigenous CAR-T therapy to South Africa, Algeria and Morocco, and Peptris’ licensing of India’s first AI-discovered drug candidate to Revio Therapeutics.
India’s right to win is concentrated in three arenas. The strongest opportunities lie in cost-disruptive innovation, India-specific data-led precision medicine, and science-driven platform development, underpinned by clinical-trial costs that are 50 to 60% lower than in the US, deep scientific talent, large-scale patient data, and unmatched genetic diversity. As the report notes, India’s advantage lies in combining cost, data and talent, rather than competing on frontier science alone.
Solving structural gaps will determine whether Indian pharma can realize its full innovation potential. Despite carrying nearly 15% of the global disease burden, India conducts only around 4% of global clinical trials, while annual pharmaceutical R&D spending remains at $2 to 3 billion compared with $70 to 75 billion in the US. Access to early-stage, patient capital — with only 10 to 15% of Indian venture capital firms possessing deep pharma and biotech expertise compared with roughly 60% in the US — remains a priority. The next five years will determine whether India evolves into a global innovation originator — the conditions are in place.
“India’s innovation trajectory is gaining real momentum, and its evolution into a sustained innovation engine is well underway,” said Priyanka Aggarwal, Managing Director and Senior Partner, BCG India and Southeast Asia Leader, Healthcare Practice. “We are seeing a fundamental shift in ambition from replication to origination, and from process excellence to scientific discovery. Realizing this potential will require building specialist biotech capital, deepening academia–industry partnerships, creating fast-track regulatory pathways, and bridging the talent gap in R&D and innovation.”
“What stands out is that there is no single playbook — Indian companies are proving multiple routes to global relevance: developing novel science in India first and taking it worldwide, out-licensing India-origin innovation to global players, and spinning breakthroughs out of academic labs,” said Abhinav Anand, Partner, BCG. “Zydus, for example, developed indigenous molecules like Saroglitazar and Desidustat in India and is now scaling them globally. Glenmark took a different route — advancing a first-in-class asset through global development, culminating in a $700 million upfront licensing deal with AbbVie, one of the largest such transactions for an India-origin molecule.”
“For years, the conversation around Indian healthcare innovation was about cost and scale. That is changing,” said Charles Janssen, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, HealthKois. “We are seeing India-origin science licensed by global pharma majors, and indigenous CAR-T therapies treating patients at a fraction of the global cost. Capital that understands the science and is willing to back it through the early, uncertain years will be the difference between a handful of breakout successes and a durable innovation engine.”
“India is at a genuinely exciting inflection point, shifting from replication to origination, with multiple forces converging to make that possible,” said Ajay Mahipal, Co-Founder and General Partner, HealthKois. “India is building a differentiated advantage by combining cost, data and scientific talent in ways few countries can match. Our role is to fuel that engine by providing patient capital, domain expertise and specialist networks that help companies scale.”
The next five years will determine whether India evolves into a global innovation originator. By building on its scientific talent, cost competitiveness, digital infrastructure, patient diversity and manufacturing strength, and translating these advantages into coordinated action across capital, academia, regulation and supply chains, India has the opportunity to move from a sophisticated development hub to a global life sciences powerhouse.
About Boston Consulting Group
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About HealthKois
HealthKois (Fund III) is a $300 million India-focused healthcare innovation and impact fund. The fund is led by Charles Janssen, Ajay Mahipal, and Dr. Pinak Shrikhande, building on a strong track record of investing in highly innovative and scalable healthcare business models that deliver both superior financial returns and measurable social impact.
HealthKois focuses on high-growth, innovation-led companies across HealthTech, Biopharma, MedTech, Healthcare Delivery, and Climate Health, with a particular emphasis on AI-enabled healthcare models. The fund targets businesses operating at the intersection of technology, clinical excellence, and scalable delivery, addressing critical gaps in access, affordability, and quality of care in India and the broader Global South.
Guided by a disciplined investment strategy focused on capital efficiency and risk-adjusted returns, HealthKois seeks to build a concentrated portfolio of high-impact companies, balancing growth-stage scalability with exposure to cutting-edge innovation.
