By: Saurabh Agarwal
Last updated : July 25, 2026 7:48 am
India did not become the pharmacy of the world by accident and sustaining that position will require continued commitment and long-term investment
Forty-five years ago, when my father's generation was building this company, the phrase “Made in India” attached to a medicine strip was, more often than not, an apology waiting to happen. Doctors abroad asked twice before prescribing it. Regulators scrutinised it a little harder than they needed to. Distributors priced it as the fallback option, not the first choice. We grew up watching that perception change, tablet by tablet, audit by audit, shipment by shipment. Today, roughly one in every five generic medicines consumed anywhere in the world was manufactured in India. That is not a statistic in a report, It is a shift we have lived through, on factory floors and in regulatory queues, across three decades in this industry.
It is important to recognize that India's role in expanding global healthcare access is not merely a story of cheap labour and low-cost medicines. It is a story of deep manufacturing capabilities, scientific expertise, and operational excellence that very few countries can replicate. Much of this progress is being driven by mid-sized pharmaceutical companies, which are quietly strengthening global supply chains, investing in complex manufacturing, and improving access to quality medicines across international markets, alongside the industry's larger players.
Start with what we actually build with. India today has a domestic ecosystem for pharmaceutical machinery — tablet compression, blister packaging, liquid filling, freeze-drying — that rival what used to be exclusively German or Italian engineering. Our packaging materials industry, from pharma-grade blister foils to child-resistant closures to cold-chain-ready components, has matured to the point where global majors now qualify Indian vendors as primary suppliers, not backups. Add to that a workforce of formulation scientists, regulatory affairs professionals and quality personnel trained specifically for USFDA, EU-GMP and WHO-GMP environments, and you have something genuinely rare: an integrated manufacturing base where machinery, materials, APIs and skilled people sit within the same few industrial corridors. Few countries outside China and the traditional Western manufacturing hubs can say the same, and unlike China, our regulatory relationship with the US and Europe has decades of trust built into it.
Advantage India
India's pharmaceutical manufacturing strength is often described primarily in terms of cost competitiveness, but that narrative overlooks the real drivers of its success. Finished formulations manufactured in India can reach patients at a fraction of the cost of the same molecules produced in Europe or the US, not because of lower standards, but because of manufacturing efficiency. Integrated supply chains, high-utilisation facilities, and process discipline refined through decades of serving highly regulated markets have created a robust and scalable ecosystem. The industry's advantage lies not in being "cheap," but in being highly efficient—an edge that is far more difficult to replicate.
Conversations about India's global pharmaceutical footprint often revolve around a handful of large companies. Yet, much of the expansion into Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Latin America, and Southeast Asia over the past decade has been driven by mid-market pharmaceutical manufacturers. These companies, typically operating one or two WHO-GMP-certified facilities with focused therapeutic portfolios, have demonstrated the agility to register products across multiple emerging markets without the bureaucratic complexity of large multinationals. Far from being a supporting force, India's MSME pharmaceutical sector has become one of the primary drivers of healthcare access across emerging markets.
That distinction matters because emerging-market health systems need something specific: a supplier who will still be answering the phone in five years, who understands local regulatory pathways instead of treating every market as an afterthought, and who can hold a price point without disappearing when margins get thin. Large multinationals optimise for their biggest markets. Mid-sized Indian manufacturers, because emerging markets often are our core business rather than a side line, tend to stay committed to them.
Way forward
None of this suggests that the work is complete. Dependence on imported key starting materials for certain complex APIs, comparatively lower investment in domestic R&D than global peers, and infrastructure gaps across some manufacturing clusters remain significant challenges. Acknowledging these constraints is essential, rather than overlooking them. At the same time, the overall trajectory is clear and points towards continued progress. As biosimilars, complex generics and drug-device combinations move from niche to mainstream, the Indian mid-market is positioning itself not just as the supplier of yesterday's off-patent molecules, but as a credible partner for tomorrow's more complex therapies — at a price point that keeps healthcare systems in the developing world solvent.
India did not become the pharmacy of the world by accident and sustaining that position will require continued commitment and long-term investment. It will depend on thousands of mid-sized pharmaceutical manufacturers consistently investing in quality, regulatory compliance, manufacturing capabilities, facility upgrades, and market registrations, even when these efforts remain outside the spotlight. Their sustained contribution to expanding access to affordable, high-quality medicines across emerging markets represents one of the defining strengths of India's pharmaceutical industry.
About Author: Saurabh Agrawal, Director at HAB Pharmaceuticals & Research Limited, is a pharmaceutical industry leader with over 18 years of experience. He drives the company’s growth by strengthening strategic partnerships, leading product commercialization, and enhancing operational efficiency. Combining entrepreneurial legacy with a forward-looking approach, he is focused on building a future-ready, globally competitive pharmaceutical organization.
*The author’s views are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher.