India is the 'pharmacy of the world' but lags in novel drug discovery. What changes in its R&D ecosystem are needed to use frontier chemistry breakthroughs?

India became the "pharmacy of the world" through low-cost generics. New drug molecules, however, start with frontier chemistry done in university labs. One example is the University of Chicago's 2026 carbon-to-nitrogen atom swap under mild conditions [1]. To make use of such work, India's R&D ecosystem must move from cost-based to innovation-based growth [3].

Frontier chemistry and India's discovery gap

• Skeletal editing swaps single atoms in a molecule's core. This changes solubility and target binding. The Chicago method gave 73% yield on a hard-to-convert indole and also edited an anti-cancer Vinca alkaloid [1].
• Such tools make analogues of existing scaffolds directly, which widens the chemical space available for screening [2].
• These tools come from curiosity-driven academic research. India's main support scheme, PRIP (₹5,000 crore), mostly funds about 300 product-linked projects in new medicines, complex generics, biosimilars and devices [3]. Upstream method research can get left out.

Changes needed in the R&D ecosystem

• Fund basic methods research: The seven NIPER Centres of Excellence already work on drug discovery, flow chemistry and continuous manufacturing [4]. Their mandates should widen to include synthetic-methods research such as skeletal editing.
• Academia–industry bridges: Use the 2023 National Policy on R&D and Innovation in Pharma-MedTech [5] to make method-development labs eligible partners, not only drug-candidate projects.
• Patient risk capital: Early-stage grants are capped at ₹5 crore [3]. A new molecule is still years of pre-clinical work and trials away from a medicine, so milestone-linked funding is needed across this "valley of death".
• IPR clarity: Under Section 3(d), Patents Act, 1970, atom-swapped analogues are patentable only if they show better efficacy. Researchers should get guidance on proving real therapeutic gain, which also guards against evergreening.
• Green scale-up: Mild methods avoid powerful oxidants [1]. Pairing them with the NIPER flow-chemistry centre [4] can make them green and ready for manufacturing.
• Human capital: Build doctoral and postdoctoral capacity in synthetic chemistry, and attract Indian scientists back from abroad.

Frontier chemistry will benefit Indian patients only if basic research, translational funding and IPR policy work together. If PRIP and the 2023 policy fund the chemistry upstream of products, India can grow from supplying the world's generics to discovering new medicines, advancing SDG 3 (Good Health) and Atmanirbhar Bharat.