India's life sciences sector is facing a new challenge: not whether it can innovate, but whether it can do so at scale, according to a joint report from Boston Consulting Group and HealthKois, released on July 17. The report states that over the past decade, patent filings in India have increased more than fourfold since 2016. Innovation pipeline assets grew by a factor of 1.5, biotech startups by 1.6 times, and private capital directed toward healthcare innovation has risen sharply.
Despite these gains, the report describes India's innovation story as "early and uneven," with most progress occurring in late-stage translation while gaps persist in early-stage research, clinical execution, regulatory consistency, and access to early-stage capital. The authors say momentum remains concentrated in specific areas rather than being broadly distributed across the sector.
Charles Janssen, co-founder and managing partner at HealthKois and one of the report’s authors, said, “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.”
The report highlights that 11 novel drug assets have originated from India over the past decade. These include first-in-class new chemical entities such as Zaynich—an intravenous antibiotic developed by Indian company Wockhardt—which received FDA approval last month for complicated urinary tract infections. Private equity and venture capital investment has grown 2.1 times during the past five years to $731 million in fiscal year 2026; notable deals include Pandorum Technologies raising $18 million in series B funding this February for clinical development of exosome-based therapies.
Structural barriers identified by the report include insufficient public funding—with maximum grant sizes around $52,000 compared to $2 million–$3 million in Western countries—a low-risk appetite among Indian venture capital firms for biotech investments; longer clinical trial approval times (around 90 days versus about 30 days in the United States); and limited local suppliers for research-grade materials leading to reliance on imports with long lead times.
To address these challenges going forward, key recommendations from the report include building specialist biotech capital within India; encouraging academia-industry partnerships; creating fast-track regulatory pathways for novel therapies; developing domestic supply chains; enabling market access; and bridging talent quality gaps in research and development.
