Innovation | IPA India

India: A Global Hub for Discovery-led Innovation

As the “Pharmacy of the World,” India has played a key role in delivering affordable, high-quality medicines and vaccines to over 200 countries. Today, the focus is shifting from manufacturing excellence to research leadership — with an emphasis on patient-centric innovation. This means addressing unmet medical needs through the discovery of breakthrough therapies that are globally benchmarked, accessible, and affordable. With its scientific capabilities, manufacturing scale, and commitment to inclusive healthcare, India is well-positioned to lead the next era of sustainable global health innovation.

Vision 2030 Report

Our vision is to create an ecosystem for innovation that will make India a leader in drug discovery and innovative medical devices.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi

IPA’s Global Innovation Summit brings together industry leaders, policymakers, scientists, and innovators to shape the future of Indian pharmaceuticals. Focused on advancing R&D, fostering collaboration, and enabling sustainable innovation, the summit serves as a platform to drive India’s transition from volume to value in global healthcare.

Innovation with Purpose. Access for All.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has set an ambitious goal: to develop 100 new therapeutics by the nation’s 100th year of independence — aligning with the vision of Viksit Bharat. Achieving this vision will require bold transformation, supported by the right enablers. IPA is committed to powering this journey through focused policy advocacy, innovation-led growth, sustainability, and future-ready talent development.

Enabling Regulatory Landscape

Regulatory reform is a foundational pillar of innovation. India is moving toward a globally harmonized science-based regulatory environment. Priorities include early scientific advice for novel therapies, international recognition of Indian trial data, and streamlined processes for faster market entry.

Robust Funding Support

Innovation thrives on consistent and risk-tolerant capital. India’s R&D financing is gaining momentum through initiatives like the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) and Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector (PRIP). The vision is to unlock more co-investment opportunities, VC/PE participation, and incentives for long-term innovation.

High-Quality Infrastructure

Innovation hubs require more than labs — they need strong physical, digital, and collaborative infrastructure. India is scaling up biotech parks, innovation districts, and trial-ready facilities, while building global partnerships to support knowledge exchange and clinical scalability.

Favourable Policy Landscape

Forward-looking policies across health, IP, trade, and technology accelerates India’s innovation edge. Coordinated policymaking and mission-mode implementation are key to translating India’s scientific capabilities into sustained global impact.

Strong Industry–Academia Linkages

Academic science must connect with industrial ambition. India is building structured frameworks for translational research, shared IP models, and talent mobility to ensure research doesn’t stay siloed in labs — but leads to viable, scalable therapies.

Accelerating R&D

India’s aspiration to launch 100 new drugs by 2047 demands a new era of drug discovery. With building blocks now in place, the focus is shifting from manufacturing to invention — backed by strong IP protection, discovery-linked pricing models, and scientific excellence.

India’s Legacy of Innovation in Pharma

ORS – “potentially the most important medical advance of the 20th century” (The Lancet)

Dr. Dilip Mahalanabis (1934–2021), graduate of Calcutta Medical College, pioneered the usage of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) by extensively applying Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) during the Bangladesh War in 1971, drastically cutting down case fatality rates in cholera. ORT was adopted into global health policy via UNICEF and led to the mass-scale production of ORS to treat dehydration caused by diarrhoea, saving millions of lives.

Saheli, world’s first non-steroidal oral contraceptive

Two decades of research at CSIR-CDRI Lucknow led to the development of a new chemical entity, Centchroman, marketed as Saheli, an effective non-steroidal oral contraceptive that enhanced women’s agency. In 1995, it was included in India’s National Family Welfare Programme.

Triomune and the transformation of affordable therapies for HIV-AIDS

In 2001, Cipla introduced Triomune, a fixed-dose combination tablet at a fraction of the cost of medicines then available to treat HIV-AIDS, transforming the nature of the epidemic, saving the lives of millions of people around the world, and especially in Africa.

Out-licensing New Chemical Entities

In 1997, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories became the first Indian company to out-license a new chemical entity developed in-house. This anti-ulcerant Balaglitazone, 100 NDA-quality molecules, and several subsequent drug candidates were developed by Indian firms that reached clinical trial phases, and some have witnessed licensing and out-licensing to global firms such as Novartis. This included Sitagliptin (by Zydus), Balaglitazone (by Dr. Reddy’s), Parvosin for BPH, and a series of molecules developed by Glenmark, starting with Oglemilast in 2004 for the treatment of asthma and COPD.

Lipaglyn™ and other New Chemical Entities (NCEs) in the market

In the past fifteen years, several well-known Indian pharmaceutical firms have achieved regulatory approval for manufacturing and marketing. Since its approval in 2013, Zydus’s Lipaglyn (Saroglitazar) has over 1.5 million patients benefiting from the medication across the liver disease and Type 2 diabetes mellitus landscape. Several other globally patented therapies include Enzene’s biosimilar for Herceptin, Natco’s novel antifungal molecule in 2024, and Wockhardt’s EMROK for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections received Indian regulatory approval in 2019.

Novel Biologics and Biosimilars

Several Indian pharmaceutical firms such as Biocon, Zydus, Intas, Sun Pharma, Enzene, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Glenmark have developed or are currently developing novel biologics or biosimilars for a variety of diseases. Biocon introduced Insugen®, the world’s first biosimilar human insulin (rh-Insulin) and a pre-filled syringe, Pichia pastoris platform in India in 2004, and Biocon Biologics has provided over 2.75 billion doses of rh-Insulin worldwide, till date.

ROTAVAC®, India’s first indigenously developed rotavirus vaccine

Developed since the 1980s through the efforts of Indian scientists, Dr. M K Bhan (1947–2020), Dr. Gagandeep Kang and others, ROTAVAC became a landmark part of immunisation campaigns around the world to protect children from gastroenteritis due to rotavirus.

Vaccines for the World

Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research–National Institute of Virology and Serum Institute of India’s mass production of Covishield, developed in collaboration with Oxford-AstraZeneca, are just a few examples from India of product and process innovations in India that are delivering vaccines to billions of people around the world.

Stempeucel®, India’s first indigenously developed biological drug with human stem cells

Developed by Stempeutics in Bengaluru for the treatment of critical limb ischaemia (CLI) due to Buerger’s disease and due to Atherosclerotic Peripheral Arterial Disease as a novel and autologous product, Stempeucel was approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) in August 2020 and has since been cleared in over a dozen countries including the USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, China and Singapore.

NexCAR19, India’s first indigenous CAR T-cell therapy

In October 2022, the CDSCO gave its first approval to an Indian CAR-T cell therapy, developed by ImmunoACT, incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) and Tata Memorial Hospital, paving the way for an emerging field in the treatment of cancer that can also make it more affordable.