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A government scheme aimed at boosting research in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors is set to be formally launched this month after being announced back in 2023.

Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Amit Agrawal, said on Tuesday the Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech sector (PRIP) scheme will focus on accelerating investments in the R&D ecosystem within the sector.

The scheme has a total outlay of ₹5,000 crore and was notified on August 17, 2023. Of this amount, ₹4,250 crore is to be focused on research and development. 

"We are focusing in a very big way now on innovation in India. So we have a scheme (PRIP) which was announced some time ago, but we hope to launch that scheme within this month," Agrawal said, while speaking at the APACMed event here.

 

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While the scheme will cover both pharma and medtech equally, Agarwal said the funding – which could be from 25 per cent to 50 per cent of the cost – would support both early-stage and late-stages of research depending on the nature of the proposal.

"We are also looking at deepening the ability in the ecosystem to produce critical raw materials and critical components which are needed to deepen the value footprint within India, which will help it make more business sense to really locate production within India," he added.

The medtech sector, informed Agarwal, has already experienced double-digit growth for the last one and a half decades, which he said will continue for decades to come. 

The department also has three medical device parks lined up, the Pharma Secretary stated. 

"They are all expected to be functional sometime by early 2027, and that will give us a good space... And in the next version of the scheme, we are planning to build more specialised facilities for those medical grade materials locally available, so that will give us a scale," he said.

Meanwhile, the minister of State for Health, Anupriya Patel, said the medical technology sector is being recognised as a sunrise sector and that the Government of India has taken several policy initiatives to promote its growth.

Both domestic manufacturing and exports are increasing across segments, she said.

"Today, India is transforming into a high-volume and high-value player in the global medtech market," she added.