Health creates wealth, says Equirus, as healthcare fundraising crosses pre-Covid high of Rs 62,432 crore

“Health also drives wealth in the stock market,” says Equirus Capital, as India’s life sciences and healthcare sector has achieved a major fundraising milestone, with total inflows surpassing the Covid-era record Rs 62,432 crore.In its recent report, Equirus noted that the NSE Healthcare Index has outperformed the Nifty 50 over periods of 1, 3 and 5 years. The report highlights broad outperformance in subsectors such as MedTech, Hospitals and Pharmaceuticals.

For example, over three years, MedTech returned 221%, hospitals 183% and pharmaceuticals 73%, compared to 48% among the Nifty 50.

Equirus attributed the increase in activity to strong market performance, which enabled record fundraising. An amount of Rs 72,440 crore of funds has already been raised in the current fiscal (FY26), led by equity capital market (ECM) activities in the pharmaceutical sector and buyouts in the hospitals segment.

Siddharth Iyer, Director and Sector Head – Lifesciences and Healthcare at Equirus Capital, commented, “In the current fiscal, fundraising has already crossed Rs 72,440 crore led by ECM in the pharmaceutical sector and Buyouts in the hospitals. Apart from a significant increase in activity across all sub-sectors, we have seen the average deal size almost treble from Rs 700 crore in the pharmaceutical sector to Rs 2,100 crore and, from Rs 300 crore in the hospital sector to Rs 850 crore.”

Equirus also noted that the size of mergers and acquisitions has increased sharply, with the average deal size increasing more than fourfold from Rs 700 crore to Rs 3,000 crore. Pharma accounted for Rs 32,000 crore of ECM activity in FY26, which represents almost 63% of the Rs 51,000 crore raised through this route. Looking ahead, Equirus expects IPOs from contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and continued momentum in M&A, buyouts and QIP activity, especially in Pharma. The report also noted that buyouts are increasingly outpacing private transactions, driven by asset scale and valuation arbitrage. The report outlines five trends expected to shape 2026:PE funds are building healthcare platforms as the market remains fragmented.

1.Regional consolidation through diagnostic chains.

2.Increased PE interest in individual specialist care and MedTech.

3. Rising valuations due to scarcity premium in MedTech.

4.Hospitals are shifting to asset-light models.

Highlighting the public market dynamics, Equirus said, “Public markets in sub-sectors such as active pharmaceutical ingredients, formulations, CDMOs, Pan-India hospitals, regional hospitals and diagnostic suppliers all have significantly higher enterprise value to EBITDA multiples than private market valuations. This drives equity capital markets issuance as there is a clear arbitrage available to IPO companies.”

In terms of investment prospects, Equirus predicts that private equity and M&A investments in the healthcare and life sciences sectors will exceed $5.3 billion over the next three years. Additionally, the company expects to attract $8 billion in ECM activity in the sector, of which $4.5 billion will be attracted in healthcare and medical technology alone.

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