Moving On From Generics: Pharma Majors To Adopt AI in Drug Discovery in 2026

Indian Pharmaceutical companies in 2025 prioritized research and development, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital tools to enhance drug discovery and streamline clinical trials for greater efficiency, according to the Handbook 2025 released by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil). 

Moreover, after the announcement of the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma-MedTech Sector (PRIP) scheme by the central government, the pharma majors have started taking small steps towards Artificial Intelligence-enabled manufacturing of advanced generics, biosimilars and complex molecules.

‘Movement Happening’ in Use of AI in Drug Discovery

Traditionally Indian pharmaceutical companies have been manufacturing generics. However, they have now slowly started moving on to developing their own molecules using technologies like AI and Machine Learning, which will potentially make the drug discovery process more efficient.

“We have not been so good in having our own molecules and being the innovator. So that momentum is slowly starting. Many pharma companies are thinking about going into their own molecules and trying to become an innovator in the field and not just do generics and biosimilars,” says Sreeji Gopinathan, CEO, SKG advisory and  former CIO of Lupin.

Commenting on the potential use cases of using AI, ML in drug discovery, Gopinathan said, “Pharma companies can shorten that time frame (to develop new medicines),” further adding that while AI usage in R&D may not grow to a significant level in 2026, early stage adoption has begun.

“This may not happen at a large scale in 2026, but I can see that there is movement happening in that direction. So, they can potentially have an accelerated drug discovery speed, challenging the traditional timelines and costs that are associated with coming up with new medicines,” says Gopinathan. 

Technology Trends In Pharma in 2025

Compliance and automation were the themes in the pharma sector in 2025, says M Prabhakar Rao, VP-IT and IS, NATCO Pharma, “The year (2025) saw the Indian pharma sector focussing on compliance, from an ESG angle, especially with reference to improving the data integrity posture of the companies. This includes regulatory compliance like the US FDA, EU - Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (National Health Surveillance Agency) ANVISA.”

Basically the idea is to reduce errors because of manual transcription or documentation. “This is to improve the data integrity posture, trying to reduce the manual errors using automation to ensure information is captured as it happens rather than recording manual records. It serves multiple purposes - Compliances, reduction of paper records and taking data driven decisions,” says Rao.

The technologies that picked up speed in the pharma space in 2025 include, “cloud, data lake, analytics and advanced analytics; other digital tools for manufacturing, regulatory compliance and quality systems have been gathering momentum and progressing quite well over the past three to five years. That will continue,” says Gopinathan.

Apart from the adoption of the backend technologies like cloud, analytics, pharma companies are also adopting frontend tools, says Gopinathan. “Pharma companies are also looking at other adjacencies, like diagnostics, or care devices like wearables, sensors. Some companies have already started adopting them,” he says.

Another area that Gopinathan feels will pick up in the near future is genomics and biomarkers, “The genomics, biomarkers and cell & gene therapy, which can be used for precision medication is a very early trend that I'm seeing in the global pharma world, where technology, AI plays a huge role,” he says, adding, “In India it may take some more time, but globally definitely that's going to happen over the next three to five years.”

“Many organizations are looking at continuous manufacturing in addition to the batch manufacturing; AI-powered mechanisms to drive the efficiencies and also the predictive quality control and quality assurance requirements of the different processes of manufacturing and quality. That is definitely gathering momentum,” informed Gopinathan.

How Are Companies Looking At the DPDP Act Implementation

Most pharma companies have a certain level of preparation already in place for the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, according to Gopinathan, “because many companies are already subjected to the California Act and GDPR. So, at least for areas where they are dealing with American citizens or European citizens, they were making sure they understood the data,” he says.

However, for an Indian pharma company to adhere to the DPDP Act, “The bigger companies are in a phase of really understanding what are the obligations of the data fiduciary, what are the rights of the data principle. They are focusing on certain areas like consent management, data privacy impact assessment.”

Rao emphasises on the importance of requirement gathering in DPDP Act implementation before adopting any particular solution dedicated for rolling out the legislation.