Govt sanctions Rs 1,600 Cr for 41 Pharma and MedTech innovation projects under first round of PRIP

image credit- freepik

Under the first phase of Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech Sector (PRIP), 41 projects with financial assistance of about Rs 1,600 crore have been approved. These sanctioned projects are expected to bring in additional private investment of Rs 3,020 crore, taking the total R&D investment in these projects to about Rs 4,620 crore.

The approved portfolio encompasses the innovation value chain, which includes new drug discovery, clinical development, and innovative medical technologies.

Out of the 41 projects sanctioned so far, 12 are in the initial stage and 29 are in the later stage. 19 projects are being done by startups and MSMEs, while 22 projects are being done by big companies.

As per the priority areas, 27 projects are under New Drugs, five projects are under Complex Generics and Biosimilars and nine projects are under New Medical Devices.

These projects primarily reflect the shift from the volume-based pharmaceutical model to the innovation-based, technology-intensive model, bringing together pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology enterprises, and MedTech innovators.

The portfolio includes projects from companies and innovators such as Biocon, Bharat Biotech, Sun Pharma, Wockhardt, Zydus, Mankind Pharma, Pandorum Technologies, Celogen Therapeutics, Origin Oncology and Bugworks Research.

These projects showcase a wide range of innovation supported under PRIP, including first-class innovations, emerging technologies, innovations with potential for global markets, and strategic priority innovations involving areas critical to public health. The projects supported under these categories include antibacterial drugs targeting multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections, exosome-based regenerative therapy for corneal disease, in-vivo CAR-T platform, patient-derived breast cancer organoids, programmable RNA-targeting antiviral technology, portable plasmonic-PCR for point-of-care infection diagnosis, and microfluidic platform for TB detection.

Under the strategic prioritization framework, more support is available for innovations focusing on areas such as unaddressed tropical diseases, rare diseases, AMR (antimicrobial resistance) for India's priority pathogens (pathogens), pathogens with epidemic or mass transmission potential, and vaccines for vaccine-preventable diseases. So far, six projects have been approved under this framework, which include projects related to bacterial pneumonia/meningitis, dengue, influenza and next-generation TB vaccines.

The remaining applications under the first round are under evaluation and the results will be announced in the coming months.