Indian Pharma Needs a Big R&D-Oriented Reset

Glenmark's progress shows the potential of Indian pharma to move from generics to drug discovery. With tech-enabled therapies evolving fast, new inflection points spell opportunities

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The news that Glenmark Pharma has, via a wholly owned subsidiary, signed an exclusive licensing agreement worth hundreds of millions of dollars with US-based AbbVie for a new experimental cancer treatment is most welcome. It is time Indian pharma moved up the value chain from producing cheap generics—drugs whose patents have expired and can be made by companies other than their originators and licensees—and started creating new lines of therapy.

The industry should come up with entirely new molecules, identify new purposes for old ones, personalize medication at the genomic level, set modern tech-derived protocols and innovate with gene editing. Creating new intellectual property calls for investment, a hardy appetite for risk and the ability to assemble, inspire and deploy talent within an ecosystem that rewards valuable work. Most of all, what it calls for is ambition and the courage to reach above the low-hanging fruit on which our industry has long thrived.