India must move from ‘pharmacy to laboratory of the world’: Anupriya Patel

Ahmedabad, Aug 22 (IANS) India must move beyond its established role as the “pharmacy of the world” and emerge as the “laboratory of the world” by placing research, innovation and artificial intelligence at the centre of its healthcare ambitions, Minister of State (MoS) for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilisers, Anupriya Patel, said at the IIMA Healthcare Summit 2026 in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

Addressing the third edition of the summit at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), held on the theme “Advancing AI in Healthcare”, MoS Patel said India’s pharmaceutical sector needed to progress from manufacturing medicines and vaccines developed elsewhere towards greater innovation and drug discovery.

The summit brought together policymakers, healthcare industry representatives and academics to discuss the role of AI in building a healthy and developed India by 2047.

The Minister of State highlighted India’s contribution during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying “the country’s pharmaceutical industry maintained supplies of vaccines and essential medical products to more than 200 countries, while India’s vaccination programme administered more than 2.2 billion doses”.

She said that AI could advance drug discovery, support personalised treatment and improve healthcare delivery through better screening, clinical decision-making and disease surveillance.

However, she stressed that the technology must be adopted in a safe, responsible and human-centred manner, with safeguards for patient privacy.

“AI must complement, not replace, human clinical judgement,” MoS Patel said, calling for AI applications to move beyond pilot projects and towards implementation at population scale through greater collaboration between the government, academia, healthcare institutions, startups and industry.

She added that Centres of Excellence for AI in healthcare had been established at AIIMS New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS Rishikesh.

MoS Patel also highlighted the Union government’s Rs 5,000 crore Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma-MedTech Sector (PRIP) Scheme, which is aimed at strengthening research and industry-academia collaboration and supporting a shift towards innovation-led growth.

She also referred to the Rs 10,000 crore Biopharma SHAKTI mission announced in the Union Budget to strengthen capabilities in biologics and biosimilars, develop skilled manpower and strengthen regulatory and clinical trial capabilities for the domestic biopharmaceutical ecosystem.

Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary Manoj Joshi said AI adoption was growing across the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.

While large pharmaceutical companies are using AI in areas, including production, human resources, marketing, distribution and inventory management, Joshi said: “Startups, particularly those based in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, are using the technology for drug discovery.”

According to the Department of Pharmaceuticals Secretary, AI can help identify and shortlist potential drug candidates more quickly, reducing the time required for the drug discovery process.

He identified access to capital, software licensing, computing capacity and specialised talent as some of the challenges facing AI-driven innovation.

“The government is working to address these constraints through initiatives, including the National Biopharma Mission and IndiaAI Mission, and is also working towards providing substantial support to eligible startups for software licensing and operational costs,” he said.

Joshi stressed the need to make healthcare and genetic data accessible to Indian innovators with appropriate safeguards.

He also highlighted the potential of AI in clinical trials, precision medicine and the digitisation of patient-level healthcare data.

Health and Family Welfare Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said the Union government is working to develop a robust digital health ecosystem and promote responsible, evidence-based use of AI.

“The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is creating an interoperable, open-standards-based digital health ecosystem, with more than 96 crore ABHA IDs and over 1,000 crore health records digitally linked across healthcare facilities and professionals,” she added.

Srivastava also highlighted AI-enabled applications for the early detection of diseases such as tuberculosis and diabetic retinopathy, along with AI-enabled clinical decision support through eSanjeevani, which has benefited more than 20 crore patients.

She stressed the importance of privacy, responsible AI, evidence-based innovation and collaboration between the government, academia, startups and industry.

She also highlighted the IndiaAI Mission and AIKosh as initiatives aimed at widening access to datasets, AI models and toolkits.

Pankaj Patel, Chairman of the IIMA Board of Governors, said AI had transformative potential across the healthcare value chain, from drug discovery to patient care.

The summit also saw the unveiling of India Pharma Archives, a digital initiative of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance in collaboration with the IIM Ahmedabad Archives.

The platform seeks to document and preserve the evolution of India’s pharmaceutical industry through oral histories, archival documents, photographs and rare media, covering the people, institutions and milestones that have shaped the sector over the past century.

A book documenting India’s Covid-19 vaccine development journey was also released at the event, covering an important chapter in the country’s scientific, pharmaceutical and institutional response to the pandemic.

–IANS

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