The biotech industry in India is transforming from a new sector into a world-renowned strong player, presenting biotechnology manufacturing opportunities in India. Driven by growth expectations from $80 billion to $150 billion by 2025, investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers are closely watching this dynamic industry.
This ongoing rise presents unprecedented opportunities, especially in biomanufacturing, biolabs, vaccines, and biodrugs. This article identifies the avenues through which India can capitalize on this interest and expand its domestic manufacturing base to become a global leader in biotechnology manufacturing.
Booming Biotech Industry in India
The biotech industry in India soared from around $80 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $150 billion by 2025. This explosive growth is attributed to successful vaccine exports, biosimilars, cell-gene therapies, and a robust startup ecosystem backed by government policies. As the biotech industry in India matures, there is an immediate requirement to upscale opportunities for domestic biotechnology manufacturing to support R&D and commercialization.
Drivers Fueling the Biotech Industry in India
- Policy Support and Funding: The Government of India has initiated flagship funding schemes like Bio-RIDE, significantly covering biomanufacturing and biofoundries. These offer capital grants, seed funding, and other incentives to startups and MSMEs addressing opportunities in vaccines, biosimilars, synthetic biology, and bioenergy. This will be complemented by boosters such as BioE3 and the National Biopharma Mission for enhancing infrastructure and technology development.
- Strong Vaccines & Biosimilars Infrastructure: With India already dominating the global supply of vaccines—supplying 60% of the world’s vaccine doses—the Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech are moving into cell and gene therapies manufacturing. Leaders in the biosimilars industry, such as Biocon, Dr. Reddy’s, Intas, and Cipla, are scaling up their manufacturing capacity to capture global markets.
Biotechnology Manufacturing Opportunities
India’s promising biotechnology manufacturing opportunities transcend various sectors:
Vaccine Biomanufacturing
India’s vaccine biotechnology manufacturing opportunities came under tremendous scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. India not only satisfied local demand but also supplied countries far and wide. Modernization of facilities to higher biosafety standards, single-use bioreactors, and easier regulatory pathways can further reduce time-to-market and support global supply chains.
Biosimilar & Biologics Facilities
Most of the big Indian players are moving ahead with fresh investments into biologics parks and contract manufacturing for biosimilars. With the acquisition of a U.S. facility by Syngene and the expanding biologics pipeline from OneSource, the reach of Indian biotechnology manufacturing opportunities is growing.
Cell & Gene Therapy Biomanufacturing
A new facility for cell-gene therapy developed in Telangana, India, is marking the country’s entry into advanced biotechnology manufacturing programs. This opens up avenues for personalized medicine, albeit with a strong need for infrastructure, skilled human resources, and regulatory framework development.
Biofoundries & Synthetic Biology
Biofoundries, the automated platforms for design-build-test cycles, have their own significance in biotechnology manufacturing opportunities. Foray projects such as Biofoundry India are helping in creating modular ecosystems for synthetic pathways, deep-learning enzyme design, and rapid prototyping. Upscaling these facilities enhances the industrial biotech, bioenergy, and bioplastics landscape.
Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMO/CRDMO)
India’s CRDMO sector is projected to grow sevenfold to $22-25 billion by 2035. These CDMO companies speed up innovation by reducing barriers for global companies, linking R&D and scale-up, and accessing new biotechnology manufacturing opportunities. For instance, OneSource has already laid the groundwork for weight-loss drugs, and Syngene is diversifying its international outreach.
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Green Biomanufacturing & Biofuels
India’s ambitions in biofuels—for example, ethanol blending is climbing from 1.5% to nearly 20% by 2025—show industrial biotech potential. The production of bio-based chemicals and biodegradable plastics via microbial or enzymatic pathways offers plentiful biotechnology manufacturing opportunities in India, with key players being biofoundries and biomanufacturing platforms.
Infrastructure & Industrial Ecosystem
Innovation Clusters Like Genome Valley
Hybrid clusters like the Genome Valley in Hyderabad drive biotechnology manufacturing opportunities in India by combining R&D and industrial capacity. These hubs provide shared infrastructure, regulatory labs, and proximity to top talent to promote collaboration and cost efficiency.
Regulatory Enhancements
India is strengthening and moving to improve the regulatory ecosystem concerning biotechnology manufacturing opportunities by establishing the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India, while bringing in smooth biosafety guidelines to ensure compliance with global quality and GMP standards.
The Full Supply of Talents and the Development of Skills
The biotechnology workforce of India is fast emerging. Biotechnology manufacturing opportunities are growing fast. It is essential to have skills retraining programs, academic-industrial partnerships, and research grants. These will build capacities in bioprocessing, automation, bioinformatics, and quality control.
Challenges and Strategic Roadmap
Capital and Investment Needs
The sector requires huge amounts of investment for modern machinery, clean rooms, regulatory compliance, and automated biofoundries. A significant capital requirement is involved in greenfield biomanufacturing plants.
Policy & Incentive Gap
India has investment provisions for pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, but none specifically target new biologics, cell therapies, or synthetic biology.
Accelerated build-out of biotechnology manufacturing opportunities would be available with tax exemptions, R&D credits, and easier import duties.
Risk from Raw Material & Supply Chain
Manufacturers still import APIs and specialty enzymes. High tariffs and slow clearance create bottlenecks. Localizing supply chains and increasing domestic production of key inputs are crucial to unlocking biotechnology manufacturing opportunities fully.
Quality & Global Competitiveness
To meet the challenge of global competition, Indian manufacturing should comply with all international regulations, including USFDA and EMA, and should streamline inspections to invest in quality systems.
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India’s Next Steps to Unlock Manufacturing Power
- Scaling Biofoundries: Deploy modular, automated biofoundries across major biotech clusters.
- Strengthening the CDMO/CRDMO Ecosystem: Support mid-sized contract firms with funding and regulatory aid.
- Boosting Cell-Gene Therapy Capabilities: Expand GMP-grade facility incentives and infrastructure support.
- Driving Bioindustrial Advance: Promote bio-based chemicals, biosolvents, and bioplastics.
- Policy Evolution: Design biotech-dedicated tax, tariff, and export incentives.
- Skill & Supply Chain Investments: Create a talent pipeline and subsidize raw material production.
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Future Outlook—India as a Biotech Manufacturing Hub
By leveraging government policy, a talented workforce, existing pharmaceutical infrastructure, and private sector dynamism, India is looking to be one of the top 3 global biotech manufacturing hubs by 2030. This capacity positions it for export-led growth, foreign partnerships, and disruptive innovation in vaccines, biosimilars, cell therapies, and bioindustrial products. The Indian biotech industry is expected to grow to $150 billion by 2025. What remains is the execution—bridging the gap across R&D, infrastructure, regulation, and capital to turn biotechnology manufacturing opportunities into reality.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1. How big is the biotech industry in India, and how fast is it growing?
A1. The biotech industry in India grew from about $80 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $150 billion by 2025. This rapid rise comes from vaccine exports, biosimilars, cell and gene therapies, and a strong startup culture backed by government support.
Q2. What government schemes are supporting biotech manufacturing in India?
A2. The government has launched programs like Bio-RIDE, BioE3, and the National Biopharma Mission, which provide funding, grants, incentives, and infrastructure support for areas such as vaccines, biosimilars, synthetic biology, and bioenergy.
Q3. Why is India seen as a leader in vaccines and biosimilars?
A3. India makes 60% of the world’s vaccine doses, with firms like Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech leading. Also, companies like Biocon, Dr. Reddy’s, Intas, and Cipla are expanding biosimilars production to cater to global markets.
Q4. What role do clusters like Genome Valley play?
A4. Innovation hubs such as Genome Valley in Hyderabad combine R&D with industrial capacity. They offer shared labs, skilled talent, and infrastructure that help biotech firms collaborate, cut costs, and scale faster.
Q5. What is the future outlook for India’s biotech industry?
A5. By 2030, India aims to be among the top 3 global biotech manufacturing hubs. With the right execution in R&D, infrastructure, capital, and regulation, India will drive exports, global partnerships, innovation, and job growth.