PRIP First Round Clears 41 Projects With Rs 1,600 Crore Aid

The Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, announced on 30 September 2026 that 41 projects have been approved in the first call of the scheme for Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector, known by its short name PRIP. The financial assistance committed to these projects is about Rs 1,600 crore.

How the money adds up

The government money is expected to pull in a further Rs 3,020 crore of private investment, which takes the research and development spending on this set of projects to roughly Rs 4,620 crore. That ratio is the point of the scheme: public money is meant to reduce the risk of early research so that companies put in more of their own.

The shape of the approved list

The three priority areas in the last rows of the table are the categories the department itself uses to sort the portfolio, and New Medicines takes the largest share of the 41.

Who is on the list

Names in the approved portfolio include Biocon, Bharat Biotech, Sun Pharma, Wockhardt, Zydus and Mankind Pharma among established firms, and Pandorum Technologies, Cellogen Therapeutics, Aurigene Oncology and Bugworks Research among newer innovators. The work supported runs from novel drug discovery through clinical development to medical devices.

The science being funded

The department gave examples of the work on the list. One project is an antibacterial for infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria that shrug off several drugs at once. Another is a regenerative treatment for disease of the cornea built on exosomes. The list also carries a CAR-T platform designed to work inside the body, breast cancer organoids grown from tissue taken from patients, an antiviral technology that can be programmed to go after RNA, a plasmonic PCR device small enough to diagnose infection where the patient is, and a microfluidic platform built to detect tuberculosis.

The strategic priority framework

Stronger support is available under a strategic priority framework for neglected tropical diseases, rare diseases, antimicrobial resistance in pathogens of concern for India, pathogens that could cause outbreaks or a pandemic, and vaccines for diseases that vaccines can prevent. Six projects have come through this route so far, covering bacterial pneumonia and meningitis, dengue, influenza and next-generation tuberculosis vaccines. Evaluation of the remaining applications in the first round is still going on, and more results are expected over the coming month. The department reads the portfolio as a shift away from a pharmaceutical industry built mainly on volume towards one built on innovation.