When Medicine Gets Personal

For decades, India’s healthcare story was defined by reach—affordable medicines, mass vaccination, and a generics industry that quietly became the pharmacy of the world. That legacy remains intact. But the conversation is evolving. The Union Budget’s renewed emphasis on biopharma signals a shift from scale to sophistication, from curing illness to understanding it at a cellular level. This is not about abandoning generics. It is about complementing them with precision—recognising that modern disease is complex, personal, and deeply biological.

From Cure to Precision

India’s disease profile is changing. Infectious illnesses are giving way to chronic, long-term conditions such as cancer, diabetes, autoimmune and rare diseases. These are illnesses shaped by genetics, immunity, metabolism, and environment—and they resist one-size-fits-all solutions. “Biopharma allows us to intervene at the biological root of disease rather than merely managing symptoms,” says Dr GV Rao, surgical gastroenterologist and Director, AIG Hospitals. “We are seeing more immune-mediated and metabolic disorders where precision is not a luxury, but a necessity.” Unlike conventional pharmaceuticals, biopharma therapies are developed using living systems—proteins, cells, and genes.

This biological closeness makes them more targeted and, often, gentler on the body: fewer side effects, better response rates, and care that feels less like control and more like collaboration. Biologics and biosimilars have already transformed treatment in cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and autoimmune care. Gene and cell therapies—once considered futuristic—are now steadily entering clinical practice, redefining what is possible. By identifying biopharma as a strategic frontier sector and backing it through the Biopharma Shakti initiative, the Union Budget reveals a rare quality in policymaking: patience.

Building an Ecosystem

What distinguishes the Biopharma Shakti initiative is its ecosystem approach—linking global-grade regulation, expanded NIPER-like institutions, advanced manufacturing, and a nationwide clinical trials network. “For clinicians and patients, this means innovation can travel faster—from the lab to the bedside,” explains Dr Rao. “If implemented with rigour and transparency, this initiative can do for advanced biologics what earlier reforms did for essential medicines.”

The Cancer Question: Cost, Continuity, Care

Nowhere is the impact of policy more intimate than in oncology. Dr Nagendra Parvataneni, Surgical Oncologist and Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology at KIMS Hospitals, points to the Union Budget 2026’s continued effort to reduce the cost of cancer medicines as a deeply human intervention. “For years, high prices forced families to delay treatment or abandon it midway,” he says. “When medicines are affordable, patients are far more likely to continue and complete therapy.” The result, he adds, could be meaningful improvements in cancer survival and quality of life.

Wellness, Reimagined

Biopharma is not simply advanced science; it is care designed around individuality. It is medicine that listens. “Biopharma, are medicines developed from biological sources such as living cells, proteins, and genes using advanced biotechnology, rather than conventional chemical synthesis,” explains Dr Ajesh Raj Saksena, Senior Consultant Surgical Oncologist at Apollo Cancer Centre. “These therapies can precisely target specific cells or proteins and modulate the immune system, enabling more personalised treatment.” He adds, biopharma therapies can deliver better efficacy in selected patients, more durable responses, and longer-lasting clinical benefits compared to broad-acting drugs—particularly in cancer and autoimmune disorders.

What Is Biopharma?

Biopharma (biopharmaceuticals) are medicines developed using living cells, proteins, and genetic science, rather than conventional chemical synthesis. It includes:

Biologics: Complex drugs derived from living organisms, such as monoclonal antibodies, insulin, and vaccines

Biosimilars: High-quality, more affordable versions of existing biologic medicines Cell therapies: Treatments using living cells, including CAR-T therapy for cancer

Gene therapies: Therapies that repair or modify faulty genes 

Recombinant proteins: Engineered proteins used to treat chronic and rare diseasesa

Why it matters

· Designed for today’s disease burden—cancer, diabetes, autoimmune and rare disorders—where

· one-size-fits-all drugs often fall short

· Targets disease at its biological root, not just symptoms, by acting on specific pathways, immune responses, or genetic errors

Diseases Treated With Biopharma

· Cancer – breast, lung, blood cancers, melanoma

· Autoimmune diseases – rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis

· Gastrointestinal disorders – Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis

· Diabetes & hormonal disorders – Type 1 diabetes, growth hormone deficiencies

· Rare & genetic diseases – haemophilia, thalassemia, spinal muscular atrophy

· Eye & skin diseases – macular degeneration, severe eczema

· Neurological disorders – multiple sclerosis, select genetic brain diseases

· Infectious diseases – COVID-19, hepatitis (via vaccines and antibodies)