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India has transformed from a medicine importer into a global generics powerhouse in the last five decades producing over 60,000 generic drugs across over 60 therapeutic categories and exporting to over 200 countries, according to the India Future Readiness Indicator (IFRI) 2025 report released by IMD in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The sector now contributes 1.7% of GDP and nearly 6% of merchandise exports, with a domestic valuation of approximately $55 billion, it highlighted. The report mentioned that India's pharmaceutical industry is entering a decisive new phase marked by tighter supply chains, sustainable manufacturing pressures and an accelerated global shift toward advanced biologics. However, the report mentioned that leading Indian firms typically invest 5-8% of revenue in research which is still far below global giants whose multi-modality R&D pipelines span GLP-1s, ADCs, and cell and gene therapies. It said that for the Indian companies, absolute R&D spending remains modest, and expanding investment in advanced biologics and AI-assisted drug discovery is the "largest opportunity" for closing the innovation gap. While AI has become fully integrated across global pharma, from discovery to manufacturing, Indian firms remain at a pilot-stage adoption level, applying digital tools in selective areas like formulation development or quality analytics, the report said. The study further urged Indian pharma companies to scale AI use beyond R&D to ensure competitiveness as international rivals accelerate digital transformation. The report also highlighted that the global companies are rapidly moving from standalone drugs to integrated care ecosystems where therapies are linked with diagnostics, monitoring devices, digital apps and data services. Some of the examples included digital inhalers, glucose monitoring platforms, and coaching applications, it said. On the other hand, the Indian companies are still largely product-led. They now have an opportunity to partner with medtech and digital health players to build connected, outcome-driven innovation models, it said. (ANI)
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