How can an Indian chemistry graduate interested in drug discovery find companies doing real discovery work rather than generic manufacturing?

Very few pharma companies in India do genuine discovery work, the majority focus on generics manufacturing, which is a different scientific and commercial operation. The most reliable way to identify companies doing real discovery is to look at where venture capital has been deployed. VC investment in life science companies in India is limited compared to the US or Europe, but it exists, and the companies that have received it are the ones most likely to be working on novel molecule development and early-stage drug discovery.

• Searching databases of Indian biotech investment, AngelList, Tracxn, Crunchbase, for life science investments gives you a starting list.
• For international drug discovery roles, the US, UK, and Singapore have much deeper ecosystems, and a master's degree with a computational or medicinal chemistry focus is the most common entry point.
• Combining a strong academic record in chemistry with skills in computational methods, molecular modelling, cheminformatics, or bioinformatics, makes a candidate significantly more competitive for discovery roles internationally because these skills are increasingly central to how early-stage drug candidates are identified and optimised.