News

Pharma Global Capability Centres Leverage AI to Shorten Drug Development by Up to Six Years: Report

AI, automation and analytics cut years off R&D cycles and lower costs, fueling innovation in global capability centres

• By PharmaNews Live Desk
• Hyderabad
• Feb 19, 2026

News

Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across pharmaceutical Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India is dramatically reducing drug development timelines and costs, according to a new industry report released on February 18.

AI Transforms GCC Role from Support to Innovation

The report, “Making it matter: How GCCs transform capability into end-patient impact,” by KPMG in India and UnearthIQ, highlights how India-based pharma and life sciences GCCs have evolved beyond traditional cost centres into innovation hubs. By integrating AI, automation, and advanced analytics throughout the drug discovery and development process, these centres are speeding timelines and improving efficiency across the value chain.

According to the study, end-to-end adoption of emerging technologies is compressing overall drug development cycles from 10–15 years to around 9–13 years, while R&D-to-launch costs have fallen from 20–30 % to 15–25 % of total spend.

AI Drives Efficiency in Key Development Phases

Across preclinical research and early-stage R&D, AI tools are accelerating target identification, protein modelling and compound screening, cutting early-stage timelines by five to six years. In clinical development, AI-enabled patient recruitment, trial design and real-time analytics are reducing timelines by four to six years, significantly improving trial readiness and success rates.

Industry leaders emphasise that streamlined data workflows, advanced modelling and automated analytics free scientists and engineers from routine tasks, enabling them to focus on higher-impact innovation.

Expert Voices on GCC Evolution

Shalini Pillay, Partner and India Leader for Global Capability Centres at KPMG in India, said: “The next phase of evolution of the GCC model, as it moves up the maturity curve, will be driven by the business context and core sector/domain knowledge. Leveraging emerging technologies and GenAI to impact the core sectoral challenges is what will drive significant outcomes and truly unlock the RoI.”

She noted that GCCs focused on integrating technology across the core value chain and investing in “techno-functional capabilities” are best positioned to drive impactful research outcomes globally.

GCC Ecosystem Expands and Deepens Capabilities

India hosts over 150 healthcare and life sciences GCCs, employing more than 300,000 professionals across R&D centres, global business services, shared services and centres of excellence. The landscape is dominated by pharma, life sciences and medical device hubs, with emerging roles in digital health and healthcare services.

Gaurav Vasu and Shail Maniar, co-founders of UnearthIQ, observed that the GCC ecosystem is shifting beyond legacy functions toward comprehensive ownership of discovery, clinical, and digital health workflows.

“With enterprises, technology partners, and talent coming together, both established and new GCCs are adopting a core-first approach, building capabilities that shape global patient outcomes,” they said.

Impact Beyond Drug Timelines

The report also highlights how AI and analytics are reshaping the broader healthcare innovation landscape. Medtech and health-tech GCCs are embedding AI platforms and regulatory automation across design, manufacturing and compliance, shortening device development cycles and improving operational efficiencies.

Industry analysts say that these transformations reinforce India’s growing role as a global innovation hub, with GCCs helping to bring therapies to patients faster, enhance clinical trial outcomes, and lower overall development costs — outcomes that benefit both companies and global healthcare systems.