From oncology to obesity, Pfizer bets big on India for its next growth wave

US drug multinational Pfizer—on a reset mode after its post-pandemic revenue slide—has identified India as a strategic growth engine for its next wave of bets across oncology, obesity, vaccines, and specialty drugs.

Speaking to ET’s Rica Bhattacharyya and Vikas Dandekar, Pfizer India country president Meenakshi Nevatia said the company is doubling down on India with new products launched almost in parallel with their global roll outs. She termed India as a “must-win” market, underlining that one of the key mandates for this region is to drive access by balancing the pricing of innovative drugs. She also spoke on Pfizer’s plans for next generation monthly obesity treatment as it looks to build an obesity pipeline through its $10 billion Metsera acquisition. Edited excerpts:

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Q Where does India fit into Pfizer’s overall global strategy?

Top down (after the Covid pandemic), the focus is really in areas such as vaccines, oncology, obesity, and also immunology. An ability to win in India perspective - it becomes extremely important for us. We are such a large economy that for any multinational, any global company winning in the US, Europe, China, Japan, and India becomes a must-do. No company can be global if they’re not winning in these geographies. We’ve been here for 75 years, and the commitment is there that we need to chart out the course for the next 75 years because we are here to stay.

Q What are the key growth markers for Pfizer India over the next few years?

The first is how quickly we can launch new therapies in our country. How do we make sure we launch them as fast as possible, and at as relevant an India pricing as possible. That to me is the real test of our leadership — how do we ensure that we are bringing the best of Pfizer to our country at the right price for India. The second area is how we are able to work with our local partners to drive access to our medicines. We are not here to bring lung cancer treatment to just a few. We would like it to be used by as many as needed. And separately, the role of India beyond just the market -- whether it’s through the research we do here, the manufacturing we do here. For our local business, almost 70% of what we sell, we make in India.

Q Pfizer India has seen patent losses in products like Eliquis and Zavicefta. What is the roadmap to rebuild growth?

During 2022-23, we lost exclusivity on three products — Eliquis, Zavicefta, and Ibrance (targeted therapy for breast cancer). And our new products took some time to come. But then, we launched three new products in August 2025—Prevenar 20 adult pneumococcal vaccine, Emblaveo (anti-infective), and Nurtec (for migraine). In each case, they were first-in-class. The whole idea was to make sure we launch with an India-relevant price and ensure patients who need it get access very quickly.

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Q How is Pfizer balancing innovation with affordability in India?

You can have high price-low volume, low price-high volume. We had to prove we can actually make it work. Prevenar 20 is a single-dose (one-and-done) adult vaccine at a price point of Rs 5,555. That price is actually slightly less than the older two-dose regimen. Same thing when we launched Emblaveo. We made sure the combination price is slightly less than the first drug. We need to put ourselves in the shoes of the patient. Out-of-pocket is one part; government reimbursement is also a big pillar.

Q Pfizer globally has made a big bet on obesity through the Metsera acquisition. What does the roadmap look like?

When Pfizer was looking at different options, there was a clear mandate to look at acquisitions. On the one hand, we bought Seagen for $43 billion, a massive acquisition in oncology. Metsera is the other extreme, which is mass disease, mass impact. What we see with the Metsera portfolio, from an efficacy and frequency-of-dosing perspective, we are looking at monthly dosings. Also, from a format perspective, there are potentially a lot of different advantages. Globally, the plan is to launch it before the end of this decade, so another two-three years. In India, we are working up because we need local clinical studies. We’re watching the space very carefully since semaglutide went generic in India to understand the dynamics.

Q What are the key policy issues Pfizer is pushing for in India?

We are talking a lot about regulatory data protection (RDP). Increasingly, we are launching drugs with many different indications. The amount of cost and energy that goes into proving indication by indication is a lot. The moment you lose a patent, a generic can copy your entire set without doing any study. Generics have a very important role to play, but they should not be able to just take the data generated by originators. There should be some burden of proof on generics. They should generate their own data, not just be bioequivalent. Patent is separate, data is separate.