Pharma Titans Call for Innovation Shift to Propel India’s Global Ambitions
NEW DELHI: India’s pharmaceutical industry, long celebrated as the “pharmacy of the world” for its dominance in generic manufacturing, must urgently shed its risk-averse culture if it intends to lead the next frontier of global drug discovery. This consensus emerged from a high-level discussion in New Delhi, where industry stalwarts Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Dilip Shanghvi, and Glenn Saldanha underscored the critical need for a strategic transition toward indigenous innovation.
The discourse, held during an event organized by the Indian Foundation of Quality Management, highlighted that while India’s generic footprint is vast, its future resilience depends entirely on the strength of its R&D pipeline.
The Innovation Imperative
Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw delivered a candid assessment of the sector’s current trajectory, noting that the pharmaceutical lifeline is defined by the quality and speed of its drug development pipeline. With drug discovery being a high-stakes endeavor—where often only one or two out of every ten candidates survive the rigorous journey from lab to market—industry players have historically prioritized safe, predictable gains.
“We have to move beyond this aversion to risk,” Mazumdar-Shaw stated. She pointed to Biocon’s own progress in advancing an anti-cancer treatment to Phase III clinical trials as a roadmap for what domestic firms can achieve when they invest in complex therapeutics.
Leveraging Digital Transformation
A central theme of the discussion was the necessity of “leapfrogging” through technology. Mazumdar-Shaw argued that India should no longer settle for incremental progress. Instead, the sector must embrace digital transformation to accelerate the movement of molecules into clinical trials. She suggested that India should look toward global benchmarks, including the streamlined regulatory and clinical frameworks of countries like Australia, to reduce the time-to-market for novel drugs.
Furthermore, she called for an end to the industry’s reliance on foreign facilities for animal studies, advocating for the development of robust domestic research infrastructure that aligns with international standards.
Scaling for a Global Market
Sun Pharma Executive Chairman Dilip Shanghvi reinforced the necessity of this shift by highlighting a stark industry reality: while generics drive volume, they capture only a fraction of the total global value. “If we want to succeed and become big globally and help patients, our focus on innovation is needed,” Shanghvi remarked, adding that this transition is inherently tied to the national vision of Viksit Bharat (Developed India) by 2047.
To facilitate this, Sun Pharma has taken significant steps, such as its recent multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Organon. Shanghvi explained that such strategic M&A activity is vital for overcoming the “lost time” typically associated with product registration in complex global markets like Europe, Korea, and Brazil.
A Three-Tiered Future
Glenmark Pharma Chairman Glenn Saldanha categorized the current domestic landscape into three distinct pillars: traditional generics, biosimilars, and innovation-led businesses. He emphasized that the industry’s future will be dictated by how effectively companies can scale their innovation through smart licensing and collaborative deals.
As Indian pharmaceutical giants look toward the next decade, the message from these industry leaders is clear: the era of relying solely on low-cost manufacturing is nearing its end. To remain relevant and influential, India must pivot toward becoming a global hub for life-saving, research-driven medicine.
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