bioAsia 2026: Hyderabad’s rise as AI innovation hub for global healthcare companies highlighted

Hyderabad is emerging as a key hub for building artificial intelligence-driven capabilities for global pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, with several multinational firms developing core digital, R&D and decision-making platforms from their Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in the city, executives said during a panel discussion titled ‘Building Innovation-First GCCs: AI, R&D and Digital Transformation’ at BioAsia 2026 in Hyderabad on Wednesday (February 18, 2026).

Gail Horwood, chief marketing and customer experience officer at Novartis, USA, said her organisation was building modern, AI-enabled marketing capabilities exclusively in Hyderabad for use across its entire US marketing organisation. “The GCC works as an integrated extension of global teams, supporting the development of behaviour science-based marketing tools that span physical, digital and AI-driven touchpoints, including large language models,” she added.

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The executives also highlighted Hyderabad’s role in developing foundational AI and decision-support systems. Purav Gandhi, founder and CEO, Healthark said that over the past few years, capabilities built in the city had focused on giving teams greater control over decision-making, rather than relying on rigid, pre-configured digital prototypes embedded in legacy ecosystems.

Speaking about innovation and R&D transformation, Sanjay Patel, senior vice-president and global head of Innovation Capability Solutions and Services at Takeda, Switzerland, said India had emerged as the company’s flagship innovation location within its global network of centres. Mr. Patel said AI-driven work from GCCs now spanned multiple functions, including research, quality management and professional support, reflecting a shift from cost-focused centres to high-impact innovation engines.

Echoing this view, Som Chattopadhyay, senior vice-president, Global Business Solutions and national executive at Amgen, USA, said the pace and scale at which GCCs had evolved in recent years was unprecedented. He said the current environment was defined by rapid expansion driven by business demand, rather than incremental growth seen in earlier phases of offshoring.

Syed Naveed, executive officer and chief technology officer at Olympus Corporation, Japan, said India had become a central pillar of the company’s global digital and R&D strategy. He said innovation-led GCCs required sustained effort and cultural change, adding that transformation was a process rather than a one-time shift.

Badhri Srinivasan, group chief executive officer of Unilabs, Switzerland, said organisations were increasingly treating AI as a core strategic capability. He said secure environments were being created to allow teams to experiment with AI technologies, particularly in regulated healthcare settings, with Hyderabad playing a key role in developing such foundational capabilities.