Health

India’s Pharma Ministry Launches Second PRIP Call, Offering Up to ₹50 Cr for Drug Discovery

By Priyanka Sharma

India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals has announced the second round of its Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma & MedTech (PRIP) scheme, inviting applications from startups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The call offers up to ₹50 crore per project for new drug discovery. The PRIP scheme has a total budget of ₹5,000 crore, including ₹700 crore to set up Centers of Excellence at seven National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPERs) and ₹4,200 crore to boost R&D investment in the sector. The initiative will run until the financial year 2029–30.

The second call focuses on three priority areas: new medicines—including new chemical entities (NCEs), new biological entities (NBEs) and phytopharmaceutical drugs; complex generics and biosimilars; and novel medical devices. The first PRIP round, launched on 30 September 2026, approved about ₹1,600 crore for 41 innovation projects, attracting an estimated ₹3,020 crore in private co‑funding and mobilising a total of ₹4,620 crore in R&D investment.

A new Discovery Track has been added to address funding gaps that small firms face when moving from basic laboratory research to advanced experimental stages. The track is designed to provide larger, sustained support for indigenous NCE and NBE drug‑discovery programmes and to bring institutional capital into the development pathway. Projects in this track must secure at least 25 % of their total expenditure from bona fide institutional investors.

The second call also includes two other funding tiers based on technical maturity. The early‑stage track, open to startups and smaller enterprises working on early laboratory research across all three priority sectors, offers up to ₹5 crore per project to reach the prototype stage. For projects costing up to ₹1 crore, the government covers the full amount without requiring applicant contributions; for larger budgets, the applicant must contribute half of the amount above ₹1 crore.

The later‑stage track is available to larger industry players, startups and smaller enterprises that already have working prototypes or early experimental data. It offers up to ₹100 crore per project to support formal testing stages, with a cap of 35 % of the approved total project cost; the applicant must fund the remaining 65 %.

Applicants must ensure that their developmental goals can be achieved within the scheme’s lifespan, ending in 2029–30. Projects with longer development cycles may still apply, but funding will cover only milestones scheduled before the term’s end. The deadline for all applications is 10 November 2026. A dedicated committee will review submissions regularly based on verified evidence of project readiness, development timelines and compliance with the co‑funding criteria.

The announcement was made in New Delhi by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, which highlighted the opportunity for eligible industry, startups and MSMEs to undertake high‑potential research and innovation in the pharmaceutical and MedTech sectors.