India Pharma Outlook Team | Monday, 07 September 2026
Acquisitions and manufacturing investments dominate today’s pharmaceutical landscape as companies actively reshape strategies for growth and capacity building.
Novartis India pursues therapy-aligned acquisitions and expands into Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. Fosun Pharma sells a substantial stake in Gland Pharma.
RPG Life Sciences deploys significant capital to strengthen manufacturing and API capabilities. The Dadachanji Group launches Kaisha Pharma with a major investment in pharmaceutical packaging.
These developments highlight a sector where firms prioritize targeted deals, infrastructure upgrades, and deeper market reach to capitalize on rising demand for therapies and high-quality packaging solutions across India and global markets.
Novartis India Ltd plans disciplined, therapy-aligned acquisitions and deepens its last-mile reach into Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets to drive its next phase of growth, according to the company’s annual report.
The firm focuses its future strategy on five anchor therapy areas: pain management, wellness, women’s health, neuroscience, and transplant immunology. It aims to protect and extend the equity of key brands such as Voveran, Calcium Sandoz, Methergin, Tegrital, Myfortic, and Simulect.
Vikas Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Novartis India, states that the company focuses on deepening reach into non-metro markets where specialist franchises remain under-penetrated relative to their potential.
This expansion acts as a direct lever for volume growth. For the FY 2026-27 transition, the company brings established franchises including Voveran, Methergin, Macalvit, and Calcium Sandoz fully under NIL’s commercial control. This move enhances its ability to shape commercialization, pricing, lifecycle decisions, and market development.
Supporting factors include:
These elements create sustained demand and unlock new patient opportunities across urban and rural India.
Also Read: How Regulatory Readiness Can Shape Pharma's Global Growth
Chinese pharmaceutical major Fosun Pharma pares its holding in Gland Pharma by selling a 4.5 per cent stake for Rs 2,121 crore through separate block deals on the BSE. Fosun Pharma Industrial Pte Ltd, one of the promoters, offloads 75, 05,500 shares in 11 tranches, representing a 4.55 per cent stake in the Hyderabad-based company.
The transactions are executed at an average price of Rs 2,826.60 a piece and take the combined value to Rs 2,121.50 crore. This brings Fosun Pharma’s shareholding below the 50 per cent mark to 47.22 per cent from 51.77 per cent.
Shares of Gland Pharma end nearly 1 per cent higher at Rs 2,932.40 on the BSE. The company reports a 47 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 317 crore in the April-June quarter from Rs 215 crore a year earlier, with revenue from operations up 19.5 per cent to Rs 1,800 crore.
This marks the second major stake sale by Fosun Pharma in Gland Pharma in a little over two years, following a 6 per cent divestment for Rs 1,754 crore in June 2024. Gland Pharma develops and manufactures generic injectables and serves nearly 90 countries across five continents.
RPG Life Sciences plans to deploy Rs 500 crore over the next 12 months to strengthen manufacturing and API capabilities through strategic acquisitions. Managing Director Ashok Nair states that the company has embarked on a significant expansion phase backed by a committed capital infusion of Rs 700 crore.
“Currently, the acquisitions we have made are to the tune of Rs 200 crore. We are evaluating opportunities that can strengthen our manufacturing footprint. We would like to deploy the Rs 500 crore balance in the next 12 months. We are actively pursuing good assets,” Nair says.
The company targets Rs 2,000-2,500 crore in revenue by 2030. It starts FY27 strongly with 16 per cent revenue growth and 18 per cent EBITDA growth in the first quarter, while the EBITDA margin improves to 24.5 per cent from 24.1 per cent.
Domestic formulations form around 70 per cent of the business and grow at 16 to 17 per cent, nearly 1.5 times the market rate. Nair emphasizes a bigger future role for APIs.
Key focus areas include:
Nair describes the emerging GLP-1 anti-obesity market as a “revolution still in its early chapters” and predicts the Indian obesity market for these therapies could reach approximately Rs 4,000 crore in the next three to four years. The Indian API market exceeds Rs 1 lakh crore and grows at 8 per cent, ranking as the world’s third-largest producer with over 500 APIs.
Dadachanji Group launches Kaisha Pharma, a new global pharmaceutical packaging company, with an initial investment of Euro 45 million as part of a substantial multi-million-euro commitment towards infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, and operational capabilities.
Kaisha Pharma offers a complete range of tubular glass packaging products including ampoules, vials, prefilled syringes, and cartridges, along with Ready-to-Use platforms for these formats.
The solutions enable safer, faster, and more efficient fill-finish operations while meeting stringent global requirements. The company also develops specialty containment solutions for high-value biologics, advanced therapeutics, and sensitive drug formulations, focusing on product integrity, compatibility, and performance.
The manufacturing complex will span more than 300,000 square feet and feature fully integrated production lines, high-end camera inspection systems, and laboratories with advanced analytical equipment.
Kaisha Pharma establishes an International Business Development office in Europe to serve as a hub for customer engagement, technical collaboration, and market development.
Kairus Dadachanji, Managing Director, states: “Our previous experience was a defining chapter in our professional journey. Our vision is to create a truly global company that combines entrepreneurial agility, technical excellence, and an unwavering commitment to customer success.”
Rishad Dadachanji adds that the venture builds upon earned trust while embracing opportunities in a rapidly evolving global market. These four developments collectively signal a clear industry shift toward strategic acquisitions for portfolio strength and aggressive manufacturing investments for capacity and quality.
Companies actively secure growth levers whether through therapy-focused deals, stake optimization, capital deployment into APIs, or specialized packaging infrastructure. This positions them for sustained expansion amid rising chronic disease burdens and global supply-chain demands.
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