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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 11, 2026

 

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--Pharma secy: Innovations have become faster, more profitable post COVID 
--CONTEXT: Pharma Secy Joshi speaking at ASSOCHAM Pharma Summit 2026 
--Pharma secy: India making regulatory tweaks to keep with pace of innovation 
--Pharma secy: Need to fill funding gap for pharma startups 
--Pharma secy: Supply chain resilience is govt's priority to support industry 
--Pharma secy: Govt to support fermentation-based drugs, other priority areas

 

NEW DELHI – India has started making changes to its pharmaceutical regulatory regime to keep pace with rapid advances in drug discovery and development, Secretary for the Department of Pharmaceuticals Manoj Joshi said Thursday, citing artificial intelligence and new biopharma technologies that are significantly shortening development timelines.

 

"What we used to think of as 10 years for a new drug development has shrunk quite a lot," Joshi said at the ASSOCHAM Pharma Summit 2026. He said advances in artificial intelligence and evolving global regulatory frameworks are helping companies reach proof-of-concept within two to three years.

 

Joshi said India has begun tweaking its regulatory framework to match the pace of innovation, particularly as contract research and manufacturing capabilities and artifical intelligence-driven drug discovery accelerate the movement of molecules from identification to pre-clinical stages.

"The pace in which it has happened offers us a very good time period and opportunity to do the same," he said, referring to the rapid growth of biopharma ecosystems globally.

 

He said the government's new biopharma policy, combined with regulatory reforms and artificial intelligence-led opportunities, could help India strengthen its position in innovative drug development.

 

Joshi also said the government sees supply-chain resilience as a priority area for supporting the pharmaceutical industry and stressed the need to bridge funding gaps for pharma startups. He added that the government would support the development of fermentation-based drugs and other identified priority segments.  

 

Innovation in the pharmaceutical sector has become faster and more commercially viable since the COVID-19 pandemic, Joshi said. "Innovation is becoming much faster and innovation is becoming much more profitable," Joshi said, noting that advances in biologics, artificial intelligence and evolving business models have significantly shortened drug-development timelines.

 

He said innovation globally has increasingly shifted from large pharmaceutical companies to smaller biotechnology firms. This presents a significant opportunity for India, he said.   End

 

Reported by Gunjan Rajput and Shakshi Jain

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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