More than family business: Drugmakers make costly, long-term strategic shifts as next generation steps into bigger roles

There is change in the air in India's family-run drugmakers. The companies built by first-generation entrepreneurs are entering businesses with longer timelines, deeper scientific requirements and a starkly different set of risks.

Laurus Labs' contract development and manufacturing revenue rose 36% in 2025-26 as it expanded capacity. Granules India is investing in complex generics and peptide manufacturing. Bharat Biotech is looking beyond vaccines to advanced therapeutics.

All of these moves coincide with the next generation taking on larger roles at these companies.


How much of the shift is being driven by the successors, and how much reflects the wider industry's move into more complex businesses, remain an open question. Either way, the companies are committing capital to areas with longer timelines and uncertain returns.

For the next generation - the heirs to India's pharma legacy - the test will be whether they can build the capabilities, make the right long-term bets and turn those investments into sustainable engines of growth, while creating value for investors.

Evolving Playbook

Companies such as Sun Pharma, Torrent Pharma, Laurus Labs and Granules India have seen the second-generation step into leadership roles in the recent past, taking over and growing significant segments of the business, and changing not just the businesses they pursue but also how they are run.

Bhanu Prakash Kalmath, partner and healthcare and pharma industry leader at Grant Thornton Bharat, sees this as part of a broader shift. "The industry itself is looking at how to move up the value chain from generics to complex molecules, large molecules, novel biologics and biosimilars," he said.

For three decades, Bharat Biotech focused primarily on developing infectious disease vaccines. The Covid-19 pandemic put this business model through an unprecedented test, requiring the company to create a critical vaccine indigenously in just a few months. Now, it wants to move into advanced therapeutics.

Raches Ella, director at Bharat Biotech, sees himself as both a continuation and a departure from his parents Suchitra and Krishna Ella. The company's risk appetite has not changed dramatically, but the problems are changing, according to him. "What I'm trying to add is that second engine of deep-tech innovation, trying to address more complex diseases, such as oncology, autoimmunity and metabolic diseases," he told ET.

In a way, the industry's renewed focus is emblematic of the transition from Indian pharma's traditional pillars of low-cost, large-scale manufacturing of established products toward specialised segments.

Increasing Complexity

The shift is visible across companies. At Laurus Labs, the next phase, now being overseen by founder Satyanarayana Chava's children Soumya and Krishna, is being built around CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organisation), fermentation, peptides and advanced technologies, while the company is also reworking its generics business.

At Granules India, the focus is shifting towards complex generics, differentiated products and peptide CDMO, steered by chairman Krishna Prasad Chigurupati's daughter, Priyanka.

At Sun Pharma, Aalok and Vishi Shanghvi, children of Dilip Shanghvi, have taken on prominent roles in the company. Aalok, who became chief operating officer in 2025, oversees emerging markets, global generic R&D, generic business development, operations and APIs.

The move-up the value chain requires deep technical, scientific capabilities and risk-taking abilities, according to Kalmath. "As the complexity of these businesses increases, the skills required to run them also need strengthening. If companies are moving into areas such as large molecules, they need to bring in deeper and more specialised capabilities, whether from India or from international markets," he said.

Building Teams

That reality may be changing the role of the family member helming the business, with the next generation building teams around specialised capabilities.

Krishna Chava, director at Laurus Labs, said his three-and-a-half-year tenure at Dr Reddy's Laboratories provided invaluable insight into managing a business without the advantages of being the founder's son. He has integrated this philosophy into Laurus Labs, ensuring that the CDMO division is driven by a team rather than relying solely on executive leadership.

Priyanka Chigurupati is taking a similar approach at Granules India. "I can't be the one doing all the work. We have a team; my job is to build the team and build the people who can help us drive the vision and even enable the vision," she said.

At Bharat Biotech, Raches Ella is transitioning from hands-on scientific research to strategic leadership, directing the company's scientific and financial resources.

That matters more when the bets have become larger. Laurus Labs, for instance, incurred capital expenditure of ₹4,300 crore between 2021-22 and 2025-26 and is stepping up investment in fermentation, peptides, and gene therapy and antibody-drug conjugate infrastructure. Granules India reported capex of ₹555 crore for 2025-26 as it expanded capacity and built out its complex-generics and peptide platforms.

A Long-Term Shift

Returns on these investments, however, will not show up in the next quarterly results.

"I think my proof, my ultimate validation will be 20, 30 years ahead of me," said Raches Ella.

What the next-gen do have is a distinct approach to risk.

The founders built their companies by taking instinctive risks. Founder Satyanarayana Chava said the next generation is more calculated in how they approach risk.

It relies heavily on data, according to Soumya. "We definitely look at data more now. We compare markets, evaluate numbers, and technology has made that process more precise," she said.

Granules India executive director Priyanka Chigurupati said she has put in place a more formal way of deciding where resources go. "Something as simple as a stage-gating process in portfolio strategy, we didn't have it earlier. Now we incorporate all those aspects," she said. "Products are now categorised and resources allocated across those categories rather than being pursued more randomly."

At Torrent Pharma, chairman Samir Mehta's son, Aman, is pushing for an acquisition-led growth strategy, with the aim of moving the company to among India's top three pharma players.

In a June 2025 interview with ET, he said acquisitions would remain a priority in India, while international expansion would follow a more measured approach. "Our goal as the next-gen is to maximise percentage of right calls versus wrong," he told ET in April this year. It clearly is a time of big bets, big shifts, and long waits in India's pharma landscape.