PRIP Scheme Opens ₹50 Crore Discovery Track for Drug-Discovery Startups and MSMEs
The Department of Pharmaceuticals will back early-stage new chemical and biological entities, with at least 25% co-funding from institutional investors.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals has opened a Discovery Track under the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech (PRIP) scheme, offering up to ₹50 crore per company, project or portfolio.
Who can apply
The track is meant for startups and MSMEs developing New Chemical Entities (NCEs) or New Biological Entities (NBEs) at Technology Readiness Levels 1 to 3. Applicants need at least 25% co-funding from institutional investors.
The aim is to take promising drug candidates from discovery through to the early clinical stage, up to TRL 6 — a phase where Indian innovators have long struggled to find risk capital.
Second call open
Applications are being accepted under the second call through the PRIP portal, which hosts the guidelines, concept-note formats, milestone descriptors and FAQs.
PRIP has a total outlay of ₹5,000 crore. Under the first call, 41 projects worth about ₹1,600 crore were approved. The scheme also has an Early Stage track (up to ₹5 crore) and a Later Stage track (up to ₹100 crore).
Source: Digital Health News
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