The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, has announced the second call for applications under the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma & MedTech (PRIP) Scheme, offering financial support of up to Rs. 100 crore per project to accelerate late-stage pharmaceutical and medical technology innovations.

With a total financial outlay of Rs. 5,000 crore, the PRIP Scheme aims to strengthen India’s pharmaceutical and MedTech research and development ecosystem and support startups, MSMEs and large companies in moving promising products and technologies up the innovation value chain.

The application window on the PRIP portal is expected to open by mid-September 2026.

The second call has been structured under two tracks — Early Stage and Later Stage — based on the technology readiness level (TRL) of the projects.

Under the Early Stage track, projects from startups and MSMEs involving products or technologies at TRL 1, 2 or 3will be eligible for support to advance them to higher TRLs, up to a maximum of TRL 5.

Eligible applicants can seek financial assistance of up to Rs. 5 crore per project.

The Later Stage track will support projects from industry, startups and MSMEs involving technologies at TRL 4, 5 or 6, with the objective of advancing them to higher TRLs.

Financial assistance of up to Rs. 100 crore per project will be available under this track. However, government assistance will be capped at 35% of the approved total project cost, with the remaining cost to be co-funded by the applicant.

Unlike the early-stage track, later-stage projects can directly submit the detailed application form.

The PRIP Scheme has identified several priority areas for support. These include new medicines, covering new chemical medicines and substances such as new chemical entities (NCEs), new biological entities (NBEs) and phyto-pharmaceuticals.

The scheme also covers complex generics and biosimilars, along with novel medical devices and targeted innovative therapeutics.

The novel medical-device category includes devices that have not previously been approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

It covers AI/ML-based medical devices involving software development, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), Software in a Medical Device (SiMD), medical diagnostics and screening devices using genetic technology, robotic medical devices for surgical procedures, medical devices with telemedicine capabilities and novel in-vitro diagnostic devices, including biomarkers enabling precision medicine.