From promise to positioning
Happy New Year. As I contemplate this morning what the significant shifts will be in 2026, a few bright spots have come to mind.
India’s healthcare conversation has matured. The question is no longer whether the country can innovate, but whether it can lead categories at scale. As we approach 2026, five structural shifts—already visible today—are redefining healthcare from a fragmented services sector into an industrial, platform-led ecosystem. What is unfolding is less hype-driven disruption and more strategic capability building.
1. Medical devices: import substitution today, category leadership tomorrow
India’s medical devices push began as a defensive strategy—reduce import dependence. Policy support through Production Linked Incentives, combined with supply-chain realignments, has accelerated domestic manufacturing. But the real story is what comes next.
By 2026, the ambition shifts from substitution to leadership in emerging-market categories. India is already demonstrating this in cardiovascular stents, where local manufacturers compete not just on price, but on scale, access, and outcomes. Imaging is following a similar arc. The helium-free 1.5 Tesla MRI developed by Voxel Grids addresses a global vulnerability—helium scarcity—while sharply reducing operating costs.
The implication is clear: India will increasingly define reference standards for emerging markets across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
2. Platforms over point solutions
Healthcare’s next growth cycle will be platform-led. The winning models integrate hardware, software, and AI into a single clinical workflow, rather than selling disconnected tools.
Globally, Butterfly Network showed how a tightly coupled design can reshape diagnostics. In India, platforms such as Practo and Medi Assist are evolving beyond transactional layers into ecosystem orchestrators.
By 2026, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) will scale fastest when embedded within platforms. Hospitals will procure outcomes and throughput gains, not software licenses.
3. CDMOs: India’s IT-style curve in healthcare
Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs) represent one of India’s most underappreciated healthcare opportunities. This is the early phase of a long curve—comparable to India’s IT services evolution.
India combines scientific talent, regulatory learning, cost efficiency, and manufacturing scale in a way few countries can. Collaboration across pharmaceuticals, biologics, and biotechnology will intensify, with CDMOs moving from execution partners to strategic innovation collaborators. Institutional research, including a Kotak report, already points to India’s emergence as a global CDMO hub.
By 2026, global pharma dependence on Indian CDMOs will be structural, not opportunistic.
4. Funding: fewer deals, larger conviction
Healthcare capital is consolidating. The next phase will see fewer transactions but significantly larger cheque sizes, favouring businesses that demonstrate scale, governance, and export potential. We have seen this trend already when we analysed the deals in October-November 2025.
Platform companies, medical device manufacturers, and CDMOs will attract disproportionate capital. Fragmented clinic chains and single-asset digital plays will struggle. Funding narratives will increasingly resemble industrial strategy rather than startup experimentation.
5. Personal health: growth outpaces maturity
Personal health remains one of the fastest-growing segments. Platforms such as Hyrox are gaining traction in India, alongside the rise of metabolic drugs like Ozempic, protein supplementation, and nutraceuticals.
Yet the gap between consumption and sustained behaviour change persists. By 2026, B2B-led personal health models—anchored in employers, insurers, and structured care pathways—will outperform consumer-only propositions.
Conclusion | The 2026 takeaway
India’s healthcare evolution is no longer about experimentation. It is about discipline, scale, and category leadership. The winners in 2026 will not be the loudest innovators, but the most industrially minded builders.
