AstraZeneca's Chennai, Bengaluru centres to drive 2030 global tech roadmap

This report has been updated

British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca’s global capability centre (GCC) in India will play a crucial role in meeting the firm’s $80 billion global revenue target by 2030, a senior company executive has said.

 Siva Padmanabhan, managing director, AstraZeneca India Private Ltd (AZIPL), said that this ambitious target will be met by using more advanced artificial technology (AI), machine learning, generative AI, immersive experience, digital twins, and quantum computing at the Chennai and Bengaluru centres.

Through adoption of these technologies, the centres will help in speeding up introduction of innovative products in India and the world. AstraZeneca India Private Limited (AZIPL) is planning to hire around 2,200 people in  Chennai and Bengaluru in near future to speed up its global tech drive, said Padmanabhan.

 

Out of this, the Global Innovation and Technology Centre (GITC) in Chennai will be hiring around 1,300 people in the next 18 months, while another 900 will be hired in Bengaluru. 

“As you look towards 2030, we see the centres in India playing a very key role, in the $80 billion revenue roadmap globally and also introduction of new medicines in India,” he said.

 The company has identified a number of technologies crucial for AstraZeneca in 2030. 

 The company had recently announced an investment of ~250 crore to expand its Chennai centre to drive innovation, enhance efficiency, and streamline operations across the company globally.

 “Initially, we were a technology-based Centre but now added other capabilities like supporting the global commercial operations in sales and marketing side and the analytics around how we go to market. Then we added the research and development services, which includes the supporting of our whole gamut of clinical trials, data analysis, pharmacovigilance, data insights and even filing of the research,” he said.

 The latest to its expertise was the addition of the global supply chain, including external supply management. 

“We expect the growth journey to continue, in terms of the value that we are able to provide from the centers in India. We are looking at faster outcomes with regards to the speed of introducing innovative products in India,” Padmanabhan added. 

The India centers are providing services to more than 100 countries now. "Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are very favorable towards such centers and have GCC policies in place. Our strategy us to accelerate business outcomes for the whole of AstraZeneca from here," he added. 

 “We are leading in terms of generative AI and many of such technologies are being worked at this centre for the whole world. We are seeing application in every aspect on the discovery of medicines,” he said.