Biotech in India is led today by biosimilars and vaccines — globally significant categories with deep Indian roots — and increasingly by an early-stage layer of research and platform companies.
Indian biotech has built a global presence in biosimilars and vaccines, with a small number of large players defining the leadership picture. Adjacent to them, a younger layer of platform, gene-therapy and discovery-led companies is taking shape, often funded by institutional and strategic capital.
Leadership in this sector requires deep scientific credibility alongside commercial and operational fluency. The candidate pool, particularly at the senior R&D and clinical end, is small and global. Our work often crosses borders.
Mandates here tend to be specialist.
The senior talent pool is genuinely global. For the most specialised R&D and clinical roles, the right person may sit in Boston, Basel or Hyderabad — and we run searches accordingly.
Scientific credibility and commercial judgement rarely sit in the same person. The hardest mandates ask for both, and the shortlist is always small.
Funding shapes the leadership need. A biosimilars major and a venture-backed gene-therapy platform call for very different leaders, even within the same sector.