India’s pharmaceutical industry has spent decades earning the title “pharmacy of the world” — supplying close to 20% of the globe’s generic medicines. But a new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and healthcare investor HealthKois says that identity is quietly changing. India is starting to discover drugs, not just manufacture them.
The report, Built on Scale, Turning to Science: India’s Pharma and Life Sciences Innovation Opportunity, released on July 15, 2026, puts numbers to the shift. Biotech startups have grown from around 1,500 a decade ago to roughly 2,400 today. The drug discovery pipeline now spans more than 1,095 programmes across 195 companies. Private equity and venture capital investment into pharma innovation has more than doubled in five years, reaching $731 million in FY26.
That last number is the one worth sitting with. $731 million spread across a startup base that size is not abundant capital and the report itself flags the real constraint: only 10-15% of Indian venture capital firms have deep pharma and biotech expertise, compared with roughly 60% in the US. That gap matters more than the headline funding figure, because generalist capital doesn’t know how to underwrite a seven-year drug development timeline.
So who are the firms in that smaller, specialist 10-15%? The Innovators Jam brings you a map of who is actually funding the Indian drug discovery, advanced therapeutics, and biotech platforms. Read here:
The specialist healthcare and life sciences investors of India:
HealthKois –
A $300 million India-focused healthcare innovation fund led by Charles Janssen, Ajay Mahipal, and Dr. Pinak Shrikhande. HealthKois is co-author of the BCG report and backs companies across HealthTech, Biopharma, MedTech, Healthcare Delivery, and Climate Health, with a stated emphasis on AI-enabled healthcare models.
Unlike generalist funds, HealthKois’ thesis is built around taking domestic science to global markets.
Eight Roads Ventures –
Eight Roads has been investing in India since 2007 and made its first healthcare bet in 2011. In 2022 it closed a dedicated $250 million India healthcare and life sciences fund, one of the largest India-specific healthcare vehicles at the time.
Its portfolio spans the full healthcare value chain: pharmaceutical company Cipla Health, injectable drug maker Caplin Steriles, cellular immunotherapy company Immuneel Therapeutics (co-founded with support from Kiran Mazumdar-Shawby), and e-pharmacy platform PharmEasy’s parent, API Holdings.
OrbiMed –
It is one of the largest healthcare-dedicated investment firms globally, manages approximately $20 billion in assets. OrbiMed runs a dedicated Asia strategy that explicitly covers China and India across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, healthcare services, and diagnostics.
Its most recent Asia fund closed at $800 million, targeting $10-100 million checks across about 20 companies.
Quadria Capital, InvAscent, Somerset Indus Capital Partners, Tata Capital Healthcare Fund, and Asian Healthcare Fund – These are the other names that recur in India healthcare private equity and venture circles, typically investing across pharma, hospitals, diagnostics, and healthcare services rather than early-stage drug discovery specifically. They represent the “healthcare generalist” – sector-focused, but not necessarily deep-science specialists in the way a drug-discovery platform would need.
Aarin Capital – A Bangalore-based proprietary venture fund investing in technology-intensive life sciences and healthcare businesses, positioned as an India-first, science-adjacent investor rather than a pure biotech specialist.
Endiya Partners – A Hyderabad-based early-stage venture firm with an active healthcare and deep-tech portfolio. It has made multiple investments in the sector over the past year, per public fund-tracking data, though its mandate spans technology broadly rather than biotech exclusively.
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