BCG and HealthKois said in a July 15 report that private equity and venture capital investment in India’s pharma sector rose 2.1x over five years to US$731 million in FY26.

The growth was driven by investment in AI-enabled drug discovery, advanced therapeutics, and platform technologies.

HealthKois, an India-based healthcare investment firm, and BCG said India now has more than 1,095 drug discovery programs across 195 companies and about 2,400 biotech startups.

Pharma patent families from India also rose to 2,995 in 2024 from about 716 in 2015.

The report said India supplies about 60% of global vaccines and nearly 40% of generic medicine demand in the US.

But it conducts only around 4% of global clinical trials and spends US$2 billion to US$3 billion a year on pharmaceutical research and development, compared with US$70 billion to US$75 billion in the US.

Broader market data showed India’s overall private equity and venture capital investment rose 9% in 2024, while healthcare deal volumes jumped 80%.

Comparable annual figures for pharma alone were not available.

An earlier registry analysis put India at 2.7% of clinical trials across seven major markets from 2007 to 2011.

🔗 Source: HealthKois