Why Pharma Giants Are Racing to India for Their Next Clinica…

Global capability centres (GCCs) in India are accelerating the pace of clinical trials, making the country a crucible for pharmaceutical innovation. Much of this progress is backed by adoption of AI in healthcare GCCs, according to Zinnov, a global consulting firm with its headquarters in New York and Bengaluru. 

The adoption of AI in healthcare GCCs has surged from 65% in 2019 to 86% in 2024, enabling faster patient recruitment, predictive monitoring of adverse events, and stronger compliance, Zinnov managing partner Karthik Padmanabhan told AIM.

“These centres are evolving far beyond cost efficiency to become strategic hubs where the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies design trial protocols, run biostatistics at scale, manage pharmacovigilance, and prepare global regulatory submissions,” Padmanabhan said.

Swiss innovative medicines company Novartis currently has 52 active clinical trials across 335 sites in India, involving over 2,000 patients. Over the past two decades, India has become indispensable to Novartis, providing critical support across global clinical operations, technical R&D, patient safety and pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, and advanced quantitative sciences.

Similarly, German biotech giant Bayer is running 20 clinical trials in India, spanning phase II to phase IV, with its Bengaluru GCC facilitating faster and more efficient drug development. 

Other major players, including Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, GSK, and Eli Lilly, have established operations across Indian hubs, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. Infact, India hosts over 100 healthcare GCCs employing nearly 135,000 professionals.

AI Transforming Clinical Trials

Padmanabhan highlighted that by embedding AI, GCCs are addressing long-standing challenges such as recruitment delays, data quality, and trial scalability. “As a result, India now contributes 12% of global late-stage patient recruitment, with more than 4,300 clinical trials registered on Clinical Trials Registry-India (CTRI).” 

Traditionally, clinical trials have relied on highly manual, compliance-driven processes. While technologies such as electronic data capture (EDC) systems have been in use, regulatory approvals for new tools remain rigorous. Yet, the sector is increasingly embracing AI, machine learning, large language models (LLMs), and other innovations.

A drug, depending on its complexity, can take anywhere between 1 to 14 years of trials before it comes into the market, said Sanjay Vyas, president of global safety services & clinical logistics and also the country head/managing director for India at Parexel. 

However, AI algorithms now allow patient matching, health-record analysis, and real-time monitoring within days rather than months. By connecting sites, patients, and data in real time, these tools lead to faster recruitment, fewer dropouts, and smarter trial designs.

Shakthi M Nagappan, director, life sciences and pharma, government of Telangana, told AIM that “The impact is measurable; AI-powered recruitment alone can reduce costs by up to 70% and shorten schedules by nearly 40%. By adopting global best practices, India is rapidly aligning with international benchmarks in AI-enabled drug development.”

Parexel, for instance, has introduced its proprietary Parexel Precision Pathway, a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to clinical trials that spans study design, execution, data analytics, and regulatory submissions. 

Predictive intelligence is applied to optimise study design, identify the right sites and patients, and accelerate execution. AI tools are embedded across the study lifecycle, from site contracting and grant management to clinical monitoring, statistical programming, and report generation.

“Our Parexel AI Assistant tool, launched in August 2023, has generated over 3.6 million prompts in the last year and a half, boosting productivity,” Vyas explained. 

This tool helps clinical monitors locate SOPs, summarise documents, translate reports, and even generate SAS code, Excel sheets, and strategy documents.

Strategic partnerships, such as multi-year collaborations with Microsoft and Palantir, enhance AI use in protocol writing, data cleaning, and resource planning. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) further streamlines repetitive tasks across functions.

India plays a central role in Parexel’s innovation strategy. “Parexel India is like a mini-CRO within a CRO. Tomorrow, if you separate Parexel India with 6,000 people, it can actually run an entire clinical study on its own,” Vyas added.

India’s combination of cost-efficiency, skilled workforce, and an experimental mindset makes it ideal for developing AI tools and solutions. The India team works on innovations such as automated aggregate report writing, clinical medical writing, document translations, and safety case intake processing. 

Vyas elaborated, “Our gamut ranges from pharmacy graduates, biostatisticians, and masters-level statistical programmers to physicians, finance professionals, HR, legal, and marketing specialists.”

Ultimately, AI, LLMs, and predictive analytics are transforming the speed, transparency, and efficiency of clinical trials. Yet, human trials and regulatory oversight remain essential. 

“The more billions of dollars spent, the earlier a drug can reach the market with proper data, statistical analysis, and evaluation, and AI will play a major role in that journey,” Vyas concluded.

India’s Unique Advantage

India’s vast and diverse population offers a rare opportunity to train AI models that represent global human diversity.

Genetic variation, regional disease patterns, and wide socio-economic differences together create clinical datasets far richer than many Western cohorts, Sridhar Babu, minister for IT, electronics & communications, industries & commerce, and legislative affairs, Telangana, told AIM. 

“By standardising records, building interoperable platforms and using privacy-preserving techniques like federated learning, researchers can pool data from urban hospitals and rural clinics alike to train models that perform reliably across demographics,” he added. 

Public–private collaborations, including data trusts, ensure ethical governance, high-quality annotation, and local validation. Initiatives like the MIDAS project create gold-standard, India-centric medical imaging datasets, accelerating AI development and benchmarking.

Babu claimed that multinational pharmaceutical firms are considering India as a pilot market for AI-assisted clinical trials due to the combination of scientific expertise, diverse patient base, and rapidly advancing digital infrastructure here.
A prime example is Hyderabad, which has emerged as India’s hub of life sciences innovation. The city hosts eight of the top global healthcare and pharmaceutical GCCs, where multinational firms are already piloting AI-driven clinical research solutions. Hyderabad’s convergence of IT talent, biotech infrastructure, and start-up energy creates an ideal environment for real-world AI experimentation.

The post Why Pharma Giants Are Racing to India for Their Next Clinical Breakthrough appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Generated by RSStT. The copyright belongs to the original author.

Source