Experts call for stronger industry-academia partnerships to make India a global biopharma hub
Experts at the Biotech Conclave 2026 emphasized that India needs stronger industry-academia partnerships and predictable regulations to become a global biopharma hub. They noted that while India has manufacturing strength, it must transition toward innovation and value-based research.
Why it matters
This reflects India's strategic ambition to move up the global pharmaceutical value chain from generic manufacturing to drug discovery.
India has the talent and manufacturing capacity to become a global biopharma innovation hub, but sustained funding, stronger industry-academia partnerships, and a predictable regulatory system are needed to take discoveries from laboratories to patients, experts said at a session on ‘India as the Global Biopharma Hub’ at the Biotech Conclave 2026 in Chennai. The conclave is presented by VIT Chennai in association with The Hindu .
Maneesh Paul, CEO, Microvioma, and lead co-inventor and programme director of anti-infective drug enmetazobactam at Orchid Pharma, said taking a drug from an idea to the market was a long and uncertain journey. “Eighteen years from a laboratory in Chennai... that’s where this molecule was written on a piece of paper,” he said, referring to the development of enmetazobactam.
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