The Sustainability Imperative for Pharma & Lifesciences

India’s pharmaceutical and life sciences industry is one of the nation’s most globally respected sectors. It has become synonymous with quality, innovation, and accessibility, helping deliver affordable and high-quality medicines to people across continents. As the industry continues to expand its global footprint and deepen its impact, it stands at an inflection point: to chart a growth trajectory that is commercially competitive, environmentally regenerative, socially inclusive, and governed with integrity. As India’s pharma industry continues to advance public health and address the growing needs of the world, the imperative to do so sustainably has never been stronger.

Sustainability in the Pharmaceutical Sector

The pharmaceutical sector presents immense opportunities to advance sustainability, including efforts to reduce carbon emissions, optimize water use, enhance waste management, and embed sustainability principles within research and development. As the sector evolves, it must also meet international regulatory expectations and satisfy buyer requirements by aligning with global sustainability benchmarks.

In recent years, global pharmaceutical companies have been coming together to collectively commit to advancing sustainability and performance improvement, including:

• Collaborating on sustainable packaging
• The Activate Programme and initiatives designed to help active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) suppliers reduce carbon emissions in their production processes.
• The United Nations Health System Task Force which is working on strengthening global health systems and addressing specific health crises. 

The pharmaceutical sector is also looking into ways to make its manufacturing process more sustainable, invest in cleaner production technologies and adopt green chemistry principles to minimize the environmental footprint of the medicine manufacturing. The shift to renewable energy (RE) sources across production facilities is playing a key role in reducing the sector’s overall carbon emissions.

Decarbonising the Sector 

The decarbonization momentum in the pharmaceutical sector is not limited to India. Globally, leading companies are formalizing climate commitments through recognized framework and third-party verification. Companies are prioritizing both Scope 1(direct) and Scope 2 (energy-related) emission reductions. Actions for which include RE procurement, process electrification, and high-efficiency HVAC or clean utility systems.

Overcoming decarbonization challenges in the pharmaceutical sector requires coordinated action across the value chain, combining process innovation, RE integration, supplier engagement, and robust governance mechanisms that ensure transparency and accountability. By embedding green chemistry principles, companies can save 20-30% in material and energy consumption, ensuring resource-efficient product development. 

R&D in the Indian Pharmaceutical Context 

Currently, India’s pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a strategic shift from cost-efficient generic manufacturing to higher-value innovation in biosimilars, complex generics, and specialty medicines. Companies are increasing R&D investments to move up the value chain and capture a greater global market share. The key R&D trends driving sustainability innovation include AI-driven discovery and process design, green chemistry and quantitative process metrics, decentralized and hybrid clinical trials, biologics, biosimilars, and complex generics, as well as ecosystem partnerships and external innovation.

The focus is also shifting from volume-driven growth to innovation-driven differentiation, supported by government initiatives such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for APIs and biopharmaceuticals.

Key Challenges and Future Landscape

As the sector continues to evolve, it is important to address key sustainability challenges within the supply chain to make it more effective and ensure long-term resilience. On the environmental front, pharmaceutical manufacturing is highly resource-intensive with significant energy and water requirements. Regulatory compliances remain the most persistent and complex challenges within the supply chain, as it functions within a multi-layered regulatory framework. Infrastructure-related limitations also continue to pose another major challenge to the efficient and resilience of India’s pharmaceutical supply chain. For instance, logistic expenses account for nearly 14% of GDP compared with the global average of 8–10%, underscoring persistent inefficiencies that weakens India’s competitiveness in international trade. 

Addressing economic, social, and infrastructural challenges require targeted public-private investments, modernization of freight and cold chain systems, improved multimodal connectivity, and the need for greater harmonization and capacity building across the regulatory ecosystem.

As India advances on its net zero commitments and global ESG disclosure standards become more rigorous, the pharmaceutical industry must evolve from reactive compliance to proactive leadership. Through collaborative platforms, capacity building initiatives, knowledge sharing, and policy advocacy, life sciences enterprises and pharmaceutical industries can be aligned to grow responsibly and compete with conscience.