Embedding digital intelligence into research, manufacturing, quality, and commercial functions has accelerated drug discovery and streamlined processes, says Rakesh Bhardwaj, Global CIO at Lupin

Pharma major Lupin reaped the benefits of its digital-first strategy in FY25, clocking ₹435 crore in cost savings and reclaiming 12,000 man-days through enterprise automation, analytics, and AI-led interventions, the company informed in its annual filing for FY25. With SAP S/4HANA deployed across 100+ countries, the company has laid the foundation for intelligent manufacturing, smarter supply chains, and precision-driven R&D.

Lupin’s FY25 performance underscores how digital transformation is no longer a support lever but a central growth engine for the pharma giant. The company’s leadership spanning the Chairperson, CEO, MD, and CFO, has consistently emphasised digital as a core pillar of competitiveness.

Top management on digital transformation

In her annual address, Manju Deshbandhu Gupta, Chairperson of Lupin, highlighted the company’s strategic progress and focus on innovation.

“We scaled our operations, strengthened compliance, deepened our presence in chronic care, and launched transformative digital initiatives,” she said.

The company’s top management including CEO, Vinita Gupta, and MD, Nilesh Gupta, in their annual address also stressed on the digitalisation drive underway in the company, “This year, we enhanced our digital efforts and initiated many structural shifts that will have a direct business impact in the future. We are in the process of introducing AI-driven enhancements across the value chain, right from research and manufacturing to quality and field force productivity. Our current generative AI pilots — across commercial in India, manufacturing operations, and GMP processes, have shown promising results.”

Ramesh Swaminathan Executive Director, Global CFO, Head of IT and API Plus SBU attributing cost reduction to digital interventions among other initiatives says, “The emphasis on productivity, realignment of product portfolios, digital roadmaps, and several such initiatives, have enabled cost optimisation in our factories, resulting in reduced costs for individual products,” he added, “The increased adoption of green energy and process digitisation has resulted in a cumulative reduction in utility and inventory costs as a percentage of sales. These integrated strategies have contributed to an improvement of over 10% in manufacturing margins over the last two years.”

Significant cost savings through smart technologies

Lupin realised major yields from the investments made in digital, “Our investment in enterprise analytics and automation delivered measurable impact: ₹400 Mn (₹ 40 Crore) in cost savings and 12,000 man-days reclaimed in FY25,” says the annual filing.

To achieve cross-functional synergies, Lupin has set-up a Global Technical Operations (GTO) function, “We have established a Global Technical Operations (GTO) function that brings manufacturing, supply chain, and procurement under one umbrella — creating a seamlessly integrated function. It has enabled closer collaboration amongst functions to optimize costs: leverage internal expertise to drive cost optimizations, productivity improvements, resource efficiency, and innovation,” says the annual filing.

The initiative has achieved significant monetary rationalisation, “Cost savings of $50+ Mn (approximately ₹435.5 crore) in FY25 through Automated Value Delivery (AVD), freight optimization, yield improvement, and network optimization,” adds the filing.

Major Digital Interventions in FY25

Lupin in FY25, “accelerated our digital transformation. At the core of this effort is the global deployment of SAP S/4HANA—Spanning 100+ countries and 15 major sites across India, the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico,” says the company filing.

The company also, “rolled out SAP Fiori applications with dashboards and workflows. Complementing this, Qlik Sense was embedded across core functions, democratizing data and embedding real-time analytics into daily decision-making,” adds the report.

A major milestone reached in the digital journey in FY25 was the “global launch of an integrated supply planning platform—seamlessly linked to our ERP—which has transformed demand and supply planning,” says the report.

“In FY25, we advanced Lupin’s digital transformation journey in a purposeful way,” said Rakesh Bhardwaj, Chief Information Officer, Lupin. “By deploying Industrial IoT, real-time dashboards, and PAS-X MES, we strengthened process monitoring, predictive analytics, and problem-solving across operations. Embedding digital intelligence into research, manufacturing, quality, and commercial functions has already accelerated drug discovery and streamlined processes. In FY26, our focus is to scale these new-age, data-first tools globally—making digital intelligence a core driver of innovation, efficiency, and growth.”

AI CoE for Risks posed by AI native startups

To address the risks posed by the rapid advancement of Al-driven drug discovery and the emergence of agile, tech-enabled healthcare startups, “Lupin has established a Generative Al Center of Excellence (GenAl CoE). This initiative is designed to drive innovation while reinforcing operational safeguards across key business functions. By partnering with leading Al solution providers, we are harnessing advanced analytics to extract actionable insights from complex datasets, enhancing precision in drug discovery and reducing the risk of costly missteps. Our Al-driven systems have streamlined investigative workflows, strengthened decision-making frameworks, and enabled secure, intelligent document processing,” informs the integrated annual report.

The company has also partnered with a leading AI solutions provider to unlock insights from complex datasets and bring precision to the drug discovery process. It reduces the risk of failure and increases the chances of drug development and thereby commercial success for the scientists and evaluators, “By evaluating diverse variables, including drug class, mechanism of action, indications, routes, and clinical probability of success, these AI models equip our Global Business Development and Licensing teams with powerful intelligence,” informs the filing.

AI and GenAI Transformation

At Lupin, AI initiatives have been undertaken from field operations to manufacturing and compliance. As a part of the Smart Manufacturing Hub, operational agility has been improved by getting AI-enabled insights after querying critical process and maintenance data. The Quality Co-Author initiative automates and accelerates documentation like SOPs and Quality Risk Assessments (QRAs), ensuring compliance and efficiency. The OOS Navigator streamlines investigations with AI-driven root cause analysis and auto-generated reports. The Supply Chain Insights Hub provides real-time responses to market signals and disruptions, enhancing planning and resilience.

The Integrated Command and Control set up by the company has a Digital Performance Management Dashboard. It integrates KPIs across six core functions — Finance, Supply Chain, HR, Manufacturing, EHS, and Quality — offering leadership a bird’s-eye view of performance trends, bottlenecks, and improvement areas. This dashboard acts as a single source of truth for driving cross-functional alignment.

In FY25, in a major step towards digitising quality assurance, Lupin deployed the In-Process Quality Assurance (IPQA) centralized software platform across four sites — Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (CSN), Mandideep, Pithampur Unit-1, and Goa. The platform provides a fully integrated, digital-first solution that automates in-process quality checks across compression, coating, and capsule filling operations.

The company in its future outlook for FY26 stated on continuing its investments in IT and digital, “Across the business, we will continue to embed ESG, technology, and operational excellence. Our investments in automation and GenAI are delivering early wins across research, manufacturing, and commercial analytics,” says the FY25 filing.

This article was first published in the Financial Express on 25^th August 2025