Enter Claude Science and the beginning of what could be a transformative point in life sciences research. Launched by artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic, Claude Science is a platform that brings together databases, coding tools, compute and research workflows in a single workspace to streamline scientific research. While it is designed to assist scientists in any field of research, it appears to be tailor-made to facilitate drug discovery. That is why there was a buzz in pharma circles at the June 30 launch of Claude Science, when Alexander Tarashansky, who spearheaded its development, made a dramatic point: he demonstrated how the AI tool could autonomously identify new drug candidates for a rare genetic disorder. Is this just what the Indian generics industry needs for a breakthrough in finding new drugs, a quest that has eluded it so far?
Claude Science comes configured with more than 60 scientific databases and can render scientific artefacts such as 3D protein structures, genome browser tracks and chemistry drawings, all of which will help scientists to speed up their research. Anthropic’s strongest pitch is that it will use Claude Science to pursue its own research into drug candidates for neglected diseases—which strikes compelling moral note—to help move science forward and to gain a clearer idea of how its tool works in the real world.
Now, Claude Science is not the only platform available to science researchers; there are several other tools apart from AI search engines like Perplexity that scientists are using to further their research. The Anthropic platform’s advantage seems to be the complete package that it offers. For drug companies, AI tools offer a drastic reduction in the time taken to bring new therapies to the market. Drug development normally takes 10-15 years, but newer AI tools can cut this to an average of 2-5 years. But it is not as if AI offers a magic formula for quick results. Drug industry veterans emphasise there are no shortcuts, but only a more efficient way of moving forward on the discovery path. A scientist needs to have the right skills to steer AI in the direction in which she wants. Besides, companies need deep pockets to deploy AI tools.
The fundamental question before the Indian generics companies is the direction it wishes to take as the global scenario presents newer and unexpected challenges as a result of AI. For too long it has taken comfort in the fact that it is “the pharmacy of the world” without doing an analysis to evaluate its competitive position. This failure has allowed China, a late entrant in the pharma sector, to outpace India in critical sectors.
The problem starts at a fundamental level. India is hugely dependent on China for the items that go into the making of a drug. Let’s start with APIs or active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are central, biologically active components in a medication directly responsible for treating or preventing a disease. Examples would be paracetamol or ibuprofen, which have the intended therapeutic effect to reduce pain or inflammation. For decades, Indian pharma has gloried in its global success as the supplier of inexpensive generics, masking its heavy dependence on imported raw materials. Economies of scale in China allowed India to import the entire vertical of raw materials required for the production of generic medicines at low cost, a dependence that gradually decimated its own manufacturing capacity.
Manufacturing a finished drug is a vertical integration of key starting materials (KSMs), intermediates and APIs. China’s grip is tightest at the bottom of this pyramid—on KSMs and intermediates—where high environmental costs and low margins had driven Western producers out of the market, says Drug Patent Watch in its 2026 report on the global API market.
The COVID-19 pandemic jolted the Indian industry out of its complacency when disruptions in Chinese exports and global logistics left it high and dry. The government then introduced the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports. For the pharma sector, the budgetary allocation is a mere Rs 6,940 crore, and at the end of December 2025, the scheme had garnered investment of just Rs 4,763.34 crore. This made just the barest dent in the industry’s import profile.
India has a long journey ahead to meet even its own requirements, much less make a mark in the global market, where China is the undisputed hegemon. In its 2026 report, Drug Patent Watch notes that China’s strategic dominance over the API market has intensified in critical sub-sectors. In the global API market, valued at approximately $247.8 billion, China is the structural foundation, it says. Comparing it with India’s performance, the report suggests that the description of India as the “pharmacy of the world” is a misnomer since its pharmaceutical prowess is heavily dependent on Chinese inputs. Approximately 70 per cent of India’s API needs, and up to 90 per cent of inputs for critical antibiotics such as cephalosporin and penicillin, are met by Chinese imports.
The report makes for uneasy reading because it exposes the Indian generics industry in stark terms. True, India supplies generic medicines to more than 190 countries and hosts one of the largest networks of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved manufacturing facilities outside the US. True, India’s exports have touched $31.1 billion in 2025-26 and also catered to the domestic market, valued at $60 billion. True, too, that it meets 65-70 per cent of the World Health Organization’s vaccine requirements. But the shaky foundations of the industry are a major worry for companies and pharma analysts.
Antibiotics represent the most acute vulnerability. One class of antibiotics relies on a specific KSM called 6 APA, largely produced by China. The report says that if China were to restrict the export of this KSM, production of penicillin and amoxicillin would collapse within weeks because “India’s antibiotic manufacturing capacity is effectively a downstream extension of Chinese fermentation capacity.” That is, indeed, a crushing observation.
While India appears to be content to make generic APIs, China is winning the race for future molecules, notes the report, based on a surge in China’s Drug Master File submissions to FDA.
This is a strong indication that the next generation of generic drugs launched in Western markets will rely on Chinese manufacturing processes established today. There could not be a clearer warning.