India, May 26 -- A cancer patient in a district hospital, once sent abroad for care, now begins treatment with cell therapy-developed and produced just a few hours away, in a domestic biomanufacturing facility. No loud declarations, no sweeping claims--just the quiet signal of a new capability taking root, as India steadily builds a biomanufacturing future from the ground up.

India's strength in pharmaceuticals is well known--but what's unfolding now goes beyond low-cost generics and vaccines. With promising advances like the recent approval of India's first indigenous CAR-T cell therapy and successful early-stage gene therapy trials for haemophilia, India is carving out a leadership role on the global stage of biologics.

But seizing th...