India has historically been acknowledged as the pharmacy of the world, supplying affordable medications to millions of individuals worldwide. With the onset of advanced treatments like cell and gene therapy (CGT) in health care, India has the chance to influence the future of global biotechnology.
Over 4,000 cell and gene therapy products are currently being developed globally, providing the potential to address cancer, rare diseases and genetic disorders at their origin instead of merely improving symptoms.
The emergence of a robust cell and gene therapy ecosystem reflects India’s growing capability to translate scientific excellence into top-notch health care innovations. The current challenge is not the scientific ability but rather converting that innovation into accessibility for patients. Advanced therapies continue to progress through a sequential approach, in which manufacturing, regulation, financing, workforce training and specialised treatment infrastructure develop separately instead of collaboratively. Though that method might have been effective for earlier generations of health care innovation, it is ill-fitted for therapies where all segments of the value chain are closely interrelated.
India’s own track record indicates a different outcome. From Aadhaar facilitating digital identity for the population at scale to UPI revolutionising digital payments and the CoWIN platform effectively managing one of the largest vaccination efforts worldwide by administering over two billion Covid-19 vaccine doses in less than two years, India has consistently demonstrated that addressing a challenge as a national mission enables the creation of systems functioning at remarkable scale.
What brought these initiatives together was not just technology, but a move away from sequential execution. Policy, infrastructure, regulation and delivery progressed in unison due to a collective national commitment, shortening timelines and accelerating adoption. The takeaway was not merely that India created successful platforms, but that it progressed various components of a multifaceted system at the same time.
Advanced therapies now necessitate a similar strategy.
India has made considerable investments in biotechnology research over the past decade. Government efforts via BIRAC, organisations like the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) and frameworks such as BioE3 have bolstered translational research, promoted biotechnology entrepreneurship, and enhanced scientific capacities.
Today, many promising CGT programmes struggle to move beyond research because manufacturing, regulation, clinical infrastructure and workforce development continue to evolve independently, delaying patient access.
The next stage of growth will rely on integrating these abilities through the same mission-focused strategy that has driven India’s most successful national programmes.
India’s most successful national missions were never assessed on their launch success, but rather on their ability to consistently engage large numbers of people. Advanced therapies warrant the same level of ambition. Success will not be gauged by creating groundbreaking therapies for a select few, but by establishing the means to provide them safely and reliably to all who can benefit.
That demands more than scientific excellence.
It necessitates specialised manufacturing infrastructure, streamlined regulatory processes, cohesive clinical networks, reimbursement methods and health care systems ready to provide highly customised treatments on a large scale.
India’s pharmaceutical leadership was built on scientific capability, superior manufacturing and cost-effective innovation. Advanced therapies will likewise necessitate robust domestic abilities throughout the value chain to guarantee sustained accessibility.
Encouragingly, India is strengthening capabilities across research, manufacturing and clinical development foundations that will be essential for scaling advanced therapies.
Delivering CGT requires specialised expertise across research, manufacturing, clinical care and regulation. India begins from a position of strength with one of the world’s largest scientific and medical workforces but will need stronger interdisciplinary training to meet the demands of advanced therapies.
This creates an opportunity for closer collaboration between academia, healthcare providers, industry and public institutions to develop specialised training programmes and continuous learning pathways that prepare the workforce needed for the future.
Policies such as BioE3 reflect India’s ambition to establish biotechnology as a strategic growth sector. Realising that ambition will require policymakers, academia, healthcare providers and industry to work with the same mission mindset that powered India’s most successful national initiatives.
India has already shown what is possible when science, policy, infrastructure and institutions move with a shared sense of purpose. Applying that same mission mindset to advanced therapies can ensure that scientific breakthroughs do not remain isolated achievements but become treatments that reach every patient who stands to benefit.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Dr Priya Kapoor G Hingorani, managing director India and VP APAC, Miltenyi Biotec.
