The Department of Pharmaceuticals has approved 41 projects under the first call of the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector (PRIP) scheme, with around ₹1,600 crore in financial assistance. The projects are expected to bring in an additional ₹3,020 crore of private investment, taking total research and development spending across them to around ₹4,620 crore. The department has also opened the second call on the PRIP portal.
The approved portfolio spans novel drug discovery, clinical development and innovative medical technologies.
Of the 41 projects, 12 are at an early stage and 29 at a later stage. Startups and MSMEs are undertaking 19, and large companies 22. By priority area, 27 fall under New Medicines, five under Complex Generics and Biosimilars, and nine under Novel Medical Devices.
The participants include Biocon, Bharat Biotech, Sun Pharma, Wockhardt, Zydus, Mankind Pharma, Pandorum Technologies, Cellogen Therapeutics, Aurigene Oncology and Bugworks Research. The supported work includes an antibacterial targeting multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections, an exosome-based regenerative therapy for corneal disease, an in-vivo CAR-T platform and patient-derived breast cancer organoids. It also covers a programmable RNA-targeting antiviral technology, portable plasmonic-PCR for point-of-care infection diagnosis and a microfluidic platform for TB detection.
The department said the projects reflect a shift from a predominantly volume-driven pharmaceutical model towards an innovation-led, technology-intensive one.
Under the strategic priority framework, enhanced support is available for innovations addressing neglected tropical diseases, rare diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) for India-priority pathogens, pathogens with outbreak or pandemic potential, and vaccine-preventable diseases. Six projects approved so far relate to bacterial pneumonia and meningitis, dengue, influenza and next-generation TB vaccines.
Evaluation of the remaining first-round applications continues, with further results due over the coming month. Applicants under Round 1 have been advised not to resubmit the same project.
The scheme has a ₹5,000 crore outlay and aims to help startups, MSMEs and large companies move up the innovation value chain. The New Discovery track is meant to encourage the discovery, development and commercialisation of new medicines, and to let startups and MSMEs enter the high-risk field of new drugs and therapies. The department said it addresses a funding gap in early-stage novel drug discovery.
Assistance is up to ₹50 crore per company, project or portfolio of projects, with at least 25% of project cost co-funded by bona fide institutional investors. Eligible applicants are startups and MSMEs working on New Chemical Entity (NCE) or New Biological Entity (NBE) projects at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1, 2 or 3. Support is meant to take projects to higher TRLs, not beyond TRL 6.
The department listed the intended outcomes as large-scale risk capital for startups and MSMEs, earlier participation by institutional investors, more indigenous NCE and NBE assets moving from discovery towards clinical development, and a globally competitive drug innovation pipeline.
The Early Stage track is for startups and MSMEs with projects at TRL 1, 2 or 3, progressing to a TRL not beyond 5. Assistance is up to ₹5 crore per project. No co-funding is needed where approved project cost is up to ₹1 crore; above that, the applicant co-funds half of the cost exceeding ₹1 crore.
The Later Stage track is for industry, startups and MSMEs with projects at TRL 4, 5 or 6. Assistance is up to ₹100 crore per project, capped at 35% of approved total project cost, with the applicant co-funding the rest.
The PRIP portal carries the scheme guidelines, guidance for the concept note and application form, a milestone descriptor catalogue, FAQs and an application support toolkit.
With reference to the New Discovery track under the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector (PRIP) scheme, consider the following statements:
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Consider the following pairs:
PRIP track : Feature
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
With reference to the 41 projects approved under the first call of the PRIP scheme, which one of the following is correct?
