Sanofi is expanding its global capability centre in Hyderabad to hold about 4,500 people, up from an earlier plan of around 2,600. The French drugmaker announced the move on 16 February 2026, backed by an investment it described only as several hundred million. The new capacity is being added within its existing campus in Hitech City.
Sanofi is one of Europe’s largest pharmaceutical companies, developing medicines and vaccines with a focus on the immune system. It posted net sales of €43.6 billion in 2025, up 9.9 percent at constant exchange rates, and employed close to 75,000 people worldwide.
What the centre will do
The enlarged hub will work across research and development, AI and digital innovation, data analytics, medical affairs and commercial operations. It also runs people services, finance, procurement and other corporate functions for Sanofi’s global teams and country affiliates. The company counts the site among its largest concentrations of talent anywhere and expects it to rank among the top three pharma capability centres in India. Mrinal Duggal heads the Hyderabad Global Hub.
Why Hyderabad
Hyderabad has long been one of India’s main life sciences clusters, with a deep base of pharma manufacturing, research and clinical talent alongside a large technology workforce. Telangana IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu inaugurated the expanded campus, and the announcement came on the eve of the state’s annual BioAsia conference, which draws global drug companies to the city.
Sanofi’s India footprint
Sanofi has operated in India for nearly seven decades. It runs a manufacturing plant in Goa that supplies the domestic market and more than 60 other countries, conducts clinical trials locally and operates through the listed Sanofi India Limited and Sanofi Healthcare India. The Hyderabad centre opened in 2019 with a focus on medical services and has since widened to cover global functions. In 2024 Sanofi committed €400 million to the centre by the end of the decade, and this expansion delivers on that pledge.
What it signals
Global drugmakers are moving beyond back office work in India and placing research, data and AI teams in their capability centres. Sanofi nearly doubling its planned headcount shows how central these hubs have become to pharma operating models, and it reinforces Hyderabad’s position as the leading Indian base for life sciences centres.
At a glance
- Home country: France
- Sector: Healthcare and Life Sciences
- City: Hyderabad
- Date: February 2026
- Status: Expansion of an existing centre
- Scale: Capacity raised to about 4,500 people, multi hundred million investment
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