THE BUSINESS BEHIND THE TEST REPORT
BIZ MASALA | BUSINESS • ECONOMICS • MARKETS Inside India’s pharmaceutical testing industry: who competes, who profits, and where the next wave of growth may come from By Murthy ASR | 18 October 2026 Hero artwork: editorial illustration created for this story; it is not a photograph of a named laboratory or a depiction of a verified company facility. The science behind a business The laboratory is not the last stop in the drug business. It is one of the gates through which a medicine must pass. Behind each stability study, impurity profile or batch-release test sits a business built around scientific capability, regulatory confidence, expensive equipment and repeat customer relationships. As drug products become more complex—and manufacturers serve more regulated markets—the question for investors is not simply whether testing demand will rise. It is which laboratories can convert that demand into sustainable margins. A market with more th...