Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has become the latest drug maker to announce its intent to set up a state-of-the-art centre in India to support its global drug development, digital innovation and technology plans.

The New Jersey-based drug maker has chosen Hyderabad to establish the proposed centre, and intends to begin operations towards the end of 2023.

In a recent interview with ET, Samit Hirawat, the company’s executive vice president and chief medical officer, global drug development, said BMS plans to recruit about 1,500 people over the next three years.

India is not new for BMS, whose global sales touched $46.2 billion in 2022. The company has a commercial team based in Mumbai, and has a long-term ongoing collaboration with Syngene, which offers R&D services. In addition, Accenture supports the operations of Bristol Myers Squibb from India.

“However, as in aiding the process of drug development, doing our digital innovation and technology, we are not utilising the strength that India brings,” said Hirawat on the sidelines of BioAsia 2023.

“So, the intent of setting up a new site in India is to harness talent for drug development, digital innovation and technology,” Hirawat said.

Bristol Myers Squibb is in the process of identifying a site in Hyderabad for the proposed centre.Hirawat said the proposed centre will support regulatory work, biostatistics and data sciences, the operational functions including medical writing, and pharmacovigilance.

The company is also looking to tap Indian IT talent for data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“So we intend to have all of those represented over here, but over time, this will evolve. This is not going to happen on day one,” Hirawat said.

Once fully operational, the India centre will be the second largest site after the United States for Bristol Myers Squibb.

Global drug makers are trying to tap Indian life sciences and technology talent, as they use data analytics and Artificial intelligence (AI) tools in drug development. Novartis, Merck and AstraZeneca, among others, have a large presence in India where they do cutting-edge work.