The visionary Steve Jobs once stated, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” In Telangana, we embrace this ethos, seeking to realise the impact that rapid strides in life sciences and healthcare can have on billions of lives. We are already making tangible contributions to patients worldwide through the products, services, and ideas originating in our State.

Telangana-based companies and institutions play a substantial role in life sciences manufacturing, contract research and development, MedTech innovations and Global Capability Centres (GCCs) that support high-end core activities of some of the world’s biggest life sciences companies. The value of our life sciences ecosystem has exceeded $80 billion by January 2023, marking a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 23 per cent in the last two years — nearly double the national average.

We anticipate surpassing $100 billion by 2025, solidifying our position as India’s largest life sciences ecosystem. While we have revised our target to reach $250 billion by 2030, our aim is to become the world’s life sciences capital within the next 10 years.

With more than 1,000 companies, Telangana is the only region in world to have more than 200 FDA approved sites for pharma manufacturing. Hyderabad, renowned as the “vaccine capital of the world,” spearheads the production of one-third of all global vaccines. Remarkably, Hyderabad’s vaccine capacity will surge from 9 billion doses to an impressive 14 billion doses by the end of 2024.

Genome valley

The city is also home to the flourishing Genome Valley, housing over 200 life sciences companies, a burgeoning MedTech park with 55-plus devices and diagnostics companies, and the upcoming Hyderabad Pharma City project, poised to be the world’s largest.

The initiatives undertaken by the Telangana Government have helped attract net new investments of over $3 billion from globally renowned companies such as Novartis, BMS, Roche, Sanofi, Bayer, Medtronic, Providence, Ferring, Chemo, Sandoz, Advent, Syngene, Eurofins, Piramal, Jubilant, Sahajanand Medical Technologies, B-Braun, and more during the last eight years. This has contributed to the creation of more than 450,000 jobs in the life sciences sector alone in Telangana.

Looking ahead, we are determined to cement our global leadership in pharmaceuticals with Hyderabad Pharma City, which will be the world’s largest integrated pharma park. Exceptional infrastructure, high standard but low cost of living, and access to world-class talent position us as an ideal destination for high-end GCCs and Global Innovation Centres . These centres, established by renowned global companies, drive critical functions such as research and development, analytics, innovation and engineering.

We acknowledge the transformative potential of technology in revolutionising healthcare, enabling new possibilities in disease diagnosis and care delivery. Hyderabad already hosts cutting edge technology centres of renowned tech giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, among many others. Capitalising on the engineering and product expertise within these multinational tech giants, we are poised to nurture groundbreaking healthcare solutions and foster globally recognised health-tech unicorns.

In fact, our collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to establish WEF’s inaugural life sciences Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) in Hyderabad underscores our commitment to cutting-edge healthcare advancements.

Telangana has unequivocally established itself as one of the world’s most prominent destinations for life science.

Rama Rao is Telangana’s Minister for Industries and IT&EC, and Nagappan is Chief Executive Officer, Telangana Lifesciences

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