India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals unveils a Rs 50 crore funding scheme to support early-stage biotech and pharma start-ups, aiming to bridge the critical financing gap in high-risk drug research and enhance the country’s innovation landscape.
India’s pharmaceuticals ministry is opening a fresh funding channel for start-ups and small businesses developing high-risk new drugs and therapies, in a move designed to ease one of the sector’s biggest financing bottlenecks. Under the Department of Pharmaceuticals’ Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma and MedTech scheme, eligible firms can receive as much as Rs 50 crore per company, project or portfolio, provided they secure at least 25% co-funding from bona fide institutional investors. According to the department, the aim is to give early-stage innovation a better chance of reaching the point where it can attract broader commercial backing.
The new track is aimed at start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises working on New Chemical Entity and New Biological Entity projects at Technology Readiness Levels 1, 2 or 3, which generally means research at the laboratory or pre-clinical stage. Business Standard reported that applications have been invited under the scheme’s second tranche, while a government press release said the measure is intended to close a funding gap that often prevents promising ideas from progressing beyond discovery. The broader PRIP programme carries a total outlay of Rs 5,000 crore and is designed to strengthen India’s pharmaceutical and medical technology research base, including industry-academia collaboration, according to the department’s scheme document.
The latest announcement follows the first round of approvals, in which 41 projects were cleared for about Rs 1,600 crore in support. The Department of Pharmaceuticals said those projects are expected to draw an additional Rs 3,020 crore in private investment, lifting the total research and development commitment across the portfolio to roughly Rs 4,620 crore. Of the approved projects, 12 were at an early stage and 29 at a later stage, with start-ups and MSMEs accounting for 19 projects and larger companies for 22.
The portfolio already includes work by companies such as Biocon, Bharat Biotech, Sun Pharma, Wockhardt and Mankind Pharma. Among the projects highlighted are an antibacterial treatment aimed at multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections, an exosome-based regenerative therapy for corneal disease and an in-vivo CAR-T platform. The push reflects a wider effort by New Delhi to move Indian drug makers further up the innovation chain, where the commercial risks are higher but the potential gains, both for public health and industrial capability, are substantial.
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