The Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, Government of India, held a workshop on the Promotion of Research and Innovation in the Pharma-MedTech Sector (PRIP) Scheme on March 12, 2025. Senior officials from key government departments participated, including Shri Amit Agrawal, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals; Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST); Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY); Dr. N. Kalaiselvi, Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Director General of CSIR; and Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research (DHR) and DG, ICMR.

The workshop focused on strengthening India’s innovation ecosystem in pharmaceuticals and medical technology. Shri Amit Agrawal highlighted the sector's rapid growth, noting the rising global share of advanced technologies like antibody-drug conjugates and gene therapy — projected to reach 20% of the top-100 drugs by value by 2030. He also pointed to the remarkable tenfold increase in Indian healthcare and life sciences startups, from 900 in 2020 to over 10,000 in 2024.

The PRIP scheme aims to build on this momentum with support from initiatives like CSIR’s INTENT for clinical trials, ICMR’s MedTech Mitra and Patent Mitra, and funding programs like DST’s Quantum Computing Mission and MeitY’s TIDE 2.0 and SAMRIDH. Leaders from DST, MeitY, DHR, and CSIR stressed the importance of digital health, AI, data-driven technologies, and industry-academia collaboration in driving innovation and commercialisation of research.

The workshop hosted over 100 participants from top scientific institutions, including NIPERs, IITs, CSIR labs, and government bodies, with discussions on emerging pharmaceutical and MedTech trends and strategies to transform research into market-ready products. Participants were invited to submit suggestions via the Expression of Interest (EoI) form on the Department of Pharmaceuticals’ website, open until April 7, 2025.

(PIB)