Hyderabad: Sanofi Healthcare India Pvt Ltd on Wednesday announced the expansion of its Global Capacity Centre (GCC) in Hyderabad. The drug maker is set to invest €400 million (around Rs 3,600 crore) over the next six years, with €100 million (Rs 900 crore) by next year. Over the next two years, this centre will grow to be the largest of Sanofi’s existing four global hubs, with the expansion of its team here to 2,600 from the current 1,000 employees.

Telangana Minister for Industries D Sridhar Babu inaugurated the facility at Hitec City here alongside Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals and Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary for IT, Telangana.

Sanofi aims to be the first biopharma company powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Emmanuel Frenehard, Executive vice president, Chief Digital Officer, Sanofi said, adding that “from discovery to treatment, we are using AI ethically and safely to get to market faster with our drugs. We intend to onboard talent at the city hub to embrace the power of AI across our value chain to harness the pace of scientific discovery, improve our productivity and place better decision intelligence in the hands of our people.”

To deepen footprint here, Sanofi will be making an investment of €400 million until 2030, Madeliene Roach, Executive vice president, Business Operations, Sanofi said. “The investments will primarily go into acquisition of talent and building new capabilities in order to run an operation of this scale, besides the state-of-the art facilities in Hyderabad,” she added. The centre currently has 1,000 employees.

The official further said that the city hub, established in 2019, has grown exponentially from being a medical hub to now providing several best-in-class services for Sanofi’s global functions and affiliates across the world.

A senior official of the Pharma giant said that 50 per cent of the city centre’s workforce hold PhDs and Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences, about 10 per cent are freshers from colleges such as National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education And Research (NIPER), and 20 per cent are tech graduates from IITs and other institutes.