The Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has announced a New Discovery track under the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma & MedTech (PRIP) Scheme to encourage startups and MSMEs to venture into high-risk innovation ecosystems for discovering new drugs and therapies. This initiative addresses critical funding gaps in early-stage novel drug discovery by providing financial assistance of up to ₹50 crore per company, project, or portfolio of projects, subject to a minimum co-funding requirement of 25% of project costs from bona fide institutional investors.
The scheme specifically targets startups and MSMEs undertaking New Chemical Entities (NCEs) and New Biological Entities (NBEs) projects at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1, 2, or 3, with support to progress these projects to higher TRLs not beyond TRL 6. The online PRIP portal is now live for submission of applications under the second call of the scheme, which has a total financial outlay of ₹5,000 crore aimed at strengthening India's pharmaceutical and MedTech research and development ecosystem.
The second call invites applications across three priority areas: New Medicines (including NCEs, NBEs, and phytopharmaceutical drugs), Complex Generics and Biosimilars, and Novel Medical Devices. Beyond the New Discovery track, applications are also invited under two additional tracks: Early Stage for startups and MSMEs undertaking projects at TRL 1-3 with financial assistance of up to ₹5 crore per project (no co-funding required for projects up to ₹1 crore, 50% co-funding for amounts exceeding ₹1 crore), and Later Stage for industry, startups, and MSMEs undertaking projects at TRL 4-6 with assistance of up to ₹100 crore per project subject to maximum 35% of total project cost.
Under the first call of the PRIP Scheme, 41 projects have already been approved for approximately ₹1,600 crore in financial assistance, with evaluation of remaining applications ongoing. Applicants from Round 1 are advised not to resubmit the same projects. Application forms, guidance documents, milestone descriptor catalogue, FAQs, and application support toolkit are available on the PRIP Portal, with additional queries directed to support-prip@pharma-dept.gov.in.