India Reopens Its ₹5,000 Crore PRIP Scheme, Inviting a Second Wave of Pharma and MedTech Innovators

A Second Chance at India's Biggest Pharma R&D Grant

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, opened a second call for applications on August 28, 2026 under the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector (PRIP) scheme — a ₹5,000 crore programme meant to pull India's drugmakers and device-builders further up the innovation value chain.

The scheme, notified in 2023 and running through 2027-28, is one of the largest dedicated R&D grant programmes India has built for the life sciences. Of the total outlay, ₹700 crore is earmarked to set up Centres of Excellence at all seven National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs), while the remaining ₹4,250 crore is meant to pull private capital into the sector's R&D ecosystem by co-funding actual projects.

What's on Offer

Under the second call, eligible startups, MSMEs and larger industry players can apply for financial support of up to ₹100 crore per project. Applications are invited across two tracks — one for early-stage projects and one for late-stage, more capital-intensive ones — and the window is expected to open by mid-September 2026.

The scheme's priority areas are deliberately broad but pointed: new chemical and biological entities, complex generics and biosimilars, and novel medical devices. That last category matters in a market that still imports a large share of its high-end diagnostic and surgical hardware; PRIP is structured to nudge some of that manufacturing and design work back onto Indian soil.

The First Cohort's Early Signal

The scheme's first call already produced a live test case. In July 2026, three C-CAMP-incubated ventures — Achira Labs, AAARNA Therapeutics and 4S Medical Research — were named PRIP awardees. Achira Labs and 4S Medical Research were selected under the novel medical devices track, while AAARNA Therapeutics qualified under new biological entities. Their inclusion put early-stage, incubator-backed startups on the same government list as established pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturers — a signal that DoP intends PRIP to fund genuinely novel science, not just capacity expansion at large firms.

Why the Timing Matters

The second call lands as India's broader biopharma ambitions are being reset at a larger scale. The government has separately floated a ₹10,000 crore Bio-Pharma SHAKTI scheme aimed at strengthening the country's biologics and biosimilars base, and industry analysts have pointed to a looming global "patent cliff" — an estimated $300 billion in biopharma revenue going off-patent over the coming years — as a rare opening for Indian companies to move from generics manufacturing into first-in-class science.

PRIP is smaller and more targeted than either of those efforts, but it is arguably the more direct lever: rather than funding infrastructure or manufacturing incentives, it puts non-dilutive capital directly behind specific R&D projects, at a scale — up to ₹100 crore — that can meaningfully de-risk a costly biologics or medical-device programme for a young company.

What to Watch

The immediate test will be uptake once the application window opens in mid-September. The first call's awardees suggest DoP is willing to back early-stage, high-risk science over safer, established players — a stance that will need to hold if PRIP is to genuinely shift where Indian pharma R&D happens, rather than simply subsidising work companies would have funded anyway. With the scheme running only through 2027-28, the pressure is on the second cohort to show results quickly.

Sources

• Second call for applications under Rs 5,000 crore PRIP scheme to boost pharma, MedTech innovation
• Centre invites applications for Rs 5,000 crore PRIP Scheme to boost pharma, MedTech innovation
• Second Call for Applications Under ₹5,000 Crore PRIP Scheme Announced
• Three C-CAMP startups win backing under govt's PRIP scheme
• PRIP Scheme, Department of Pharmaceuticals