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The Department of Pharmaceuticals has opened the second call for applications under the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma & MedTech (PRIP) Scheme, which carries a financial outlay of ₹5,000 crore.
Applications are invited on two tracks — an early-stage track for startups and MSMEs moving technologies from Technology Readiness Level 1-3 to no higher than TRL 5, with up to ₹5 crore per project, and a later-stage track for projects at TRL 4-6, with up to ₹100 crore per project.
Later-stage assistance is capped at 35% of the approved total project cost, with the applicant co-funding the remainder; early-stage applicants file a Concept Note first and a detailed application only if shortlisted.
Four priority areas are covered: new medicines including new chemical and biological entities and phyto-pharmaceuticals, complex generics and biosimilars, and novel medical devices not previously approved by CDSCO — the last taking in AI/ML-based devices, genetic diagnostics, robotic surgical devices, telemedicine devices and novel in vitro diagnostics.
The PRIP portal's submission window opens by mid-September 2026; applicants from Round 1 have been told not to resubmit the same project.
TRL is a scale used to describe how far a technology has travelled from an idea towards a deployable product. Low TRLs cover basic principles and laboratory proof of concept; middle TRLs cover validation in a relevant environment and prototypes; high TRLs cover systems proven in real operating conditions. PRIP uses the scale as the organising logic of the whole scheme rather than as jargon: the early-stage track takes projects sitting at TRL 1, 2 or 3 and funds them up to no higher than TRL 5, while the later-stage track picks up projects already at TRL 4, 5 or 6 and pushes them further. The two tracks are funded very differently — ₹5 crore against ₹100 crore — because the cost of research rises steeply as a molecule or device moves from the bench towards trials and manufacture. The 35% cap and mandatory co-funding on the later-stage track exist for the same reason: at that point a firm should be willing to put its own capital at risk.
Simple Analogy: TRL is the difference between a sketch, a working prototype and a car that has passed crash testing. Public money is cheap and plentiful at the sketch stage and deliberately conditional by the time the vehicle is nearly road-legal.
Support discovery of new chemical medicines and substances.
Key: Covers New Chemical Entities (NCE), New Biological Entities (NBE) and phyto-pharmaceuticals.
Move India up the value chain from simple generics into harder-to-copy products.
Key: Complex generics and biosimilars require far more process science and clinical comparability work than conventional generic manufacturing.
Support medical devices not previously approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
Key: Includes AI/ML-based devices with software development, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and Software in a Medical Device (SiMD); diagnostics and screening devices using genetic technology; robotic devices for surgery; devices with telemedicine capability; and novel in vitro diagnostics including biomarkers enabling precision medicine.
Build world-class research infrastructure and deepen the pool of trained researchers.
Key: ₹700 crore for CoEs at the seven National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research — Mohali, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Hajipur and Raebareli.
Help innovators navigate regulatory approval and intellectual property.
Key: Facilitation initiatives under the scheme, alongside mentorship support and an online platform for collaboration among stakeholders.
Seed, grow and promote research and development across universities, colleges, research institutions and R&D laboratories.
Key: Created by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation Act, 2023, passed by the Lok Sabha on 7 August 2023 — the umbrella research-funding body that PRIP's sector-specific support sits alongside.
The nodal department for PRIP; it sits in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and handles pharmaceutical policy, pricing support and sector promotion schemes.
Seven institutes — Mohali, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Hajipur and Raebareli — which will host the Centres of Excellence funded with ₹700 crore under PRIP.
India's central drug regulator. PRIP's novel-devices category is defined by reference to it — a device qualifies as 'novel' if CDSCO has not previously approved it.
Established by the ANRF Act, 2023 as the national body to fund and promote research across educational and research institutions; the general-purpose counterpart to PRIP's sector-specific funding.
PLI schemes for pharmaceuticals, bulk drugs and medical devices reward output; PRIP funds the research that decides what there is to produce. The pair shows the two distinct instruments Indian industrial policy uses — output-linked incentives and input-side R&D grants.
Complex generics and biosimilars sit directly on the patent frontier, which is why Patent Mitra is built into the scheme; India's approach to product patents and compulsory licensing shapes what Indian firms can profitably develop.
Import dependence for bulk drugs and high-end medical devices was exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic; PRIP's device track and the bulk drug parks policy respond to the same vulnerability.
The early-stage track's Concept Note route, and the provision letting ecosystem enablers apply on behalf of firms in their networks, are designed around the fact that small firms rarely have the capacity to write full grant applications.
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General Awareness > Government Schemes and Economy
General Awareness > Government Schemes
Pharmaceutical sector schemes and India's generic-drug standing appear regularly in banking and SSC general awareness; PRIP has been in the news at each application round since 2023.
Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma & MedTech — a ₹5,000 crore scheme of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, launched in 2023 and running to 2027-28.
A scale describing how far a technology has moved from basic principles towards a proven, deployable product; PRIP's two funding tracks are defined by TRL bands.
Generic medicines that are difficult to copy because of the drug's formulation, route of delivery or manufacturing process, and therefore command higher margins than ordinary generics.
A biological medicine highly similar to an already approved biological product, requiring comparability studies rather than the full development pathway of a new biologic.
Software intended for a medical purpose that performs that purpose without being part of a hardware medical device — distinguished in PRIP from Software in a Medical Device (SiMD), which is embedded in hardware.
Purified plant-derived medicinal preparations regulated as drugs, included in PRIP's 'new medicines' priority area alongside NCEs and NBEs.