PIB TrackerPRIP's second call opens two tracks for pharma research
The ₹5,000 crore scheme offers early-stage projects up to ₹5 crore and later-stage projects up to ₹100 crore, the latter capped at 35 per cent of approved project cost.
What happened
- The Department of Pharmaceuticals announced the second call under the ₹5,000 crore PRIP scheme.
- The early-stage track moves TRL 1-3 projects of startups and MSMEs to no higher than TRL 5, with up to ₹5 crore.
- The later-stage track covers TRL 4-6 projects with up to ₹100 crore, capped at 35 per cent of approved project cost.
- Priority areas are new medicines, complex generics and biosimilars and novel medical devices not previously approved by CDSCO.
- The portal window opens by mid-September, and Round 1 applicants may not resubmit the same project.
For Prelims
- PRIP: Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma and MedTech, launched 2023 under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, outlay ₹5,000 crore.
- TRL: Technology Readiness Level, the scale from concept to deployment on which the two application tracks are separated.
- Early-stage track: TRL 1, 2 or 3 to no higher than TRL 5; up to ₹5 crore per project; begins with a Concept Note.
- Ecosystem enablers: may submit Concept Notes on behalf of promising projects within their networks.
- Later-stage track: TRL 4, 5 or 6 upwards; up to ₹100 crore, restricted to 35 per cent of approved total project cost with the applicant co-funding the rest.
- Priority areas: new chemical medicines including NCE, NBE and phyto-pharmaceuticals; complex generics and biosimilars; and novel medical devices.
- Novel devices: those not previously approved by CDSCO, including SaMD and SiMD, genetic diagnostics, robotic surgical devices, telemedicine-enabled devices and biomarker-based in vitro diagnostics.
- Support structures: MedTech Mitra, Patent Mitra and mentorship under the scheme.
For UPSC: The instrument to cite when asked how India intends to move from generic manufacture to originator research, and a clean illustration of milestone-based public research funding. Use it on innovation policy, MSME participation in research and the health-technology value chain.
What it is NOT: PRIP is not a production incentive — it funds movement up technology readiness levels against milestones, not output sold, which is what separates it from a production-linked scheme.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.13 · GS2.10 · Linkage L2
Anchor
The 35 per cent cap and the co-funding requirement sit only on the later-stage track; the release attaches no such condition to early-stage grants, so public money carries proportionally more of the risk exactly where failure is likeliest.
Substantiation (data)
An outlay of ₹5,000 crore, up to ₹5 crore for TRL 1-3 projects and up to ₹100 crore for TRL 4-6 projects, the latter capped at 35 per cent of approved cost.
Exemplification
The novel device list reaches software as a medical device, robotic surgery and biomarker diagnostics — categories India currently imports rather than approves.
Problematisation
A second call implies the first did not exhaust the outlay, and the release gives no figure for what Round 1 committed or disbursed.
Way-forward
Allowing ecosystem enablers to file Concept Notes addresses the real barrier for a small firm — writing the application rather than having the idea.
Position
India's pharmaceutical strength is manufacture at scale; PRIP buys the step before manufacture, and its structure concedes that the missing capability is translation rather than research.
Deploys into: Biotechnology and IPR + government interventions (GS3.13, GS2.10) · research funding, technology readiness and India's move from generics manufacture to innovation.
Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers · 2026-08-28 · PRID 2304134 · PIB source ↗