PRIP scheme fuels India's pharma-biotech revolution

INDIA'S Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma MedTech (PRIP) scheme is a strategic leap towards pharma-biotech leadership.

- By Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru

PRIP scheme marks a decisive policy shift, one that redefines India's pharma trajectory from replication to innovation. By actively supporting drug discovery, biosimilars, and complex generics, PRIP scheme sends a clear message that India is ready to lead not just in affordability, but also in invention, said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson, Biocon Group.

As the Pharmacy of the World, India in its pursuit of affordability, missed an equally important opportunity to become the Lab of the World. Our scientists have the intellect and ingenuity to discover new molecules. What they lacked was not capability, but an ecosystem that rewards high-risk, high-reward science. For decades, the absence of incentives, infrastructure, and patient capital has kept India's R&D ambitions constrained within the boundaries of generics. The world already looks to India for access. With the right policies, it can soon look to us for discovery, Shaw told Pharmabiz.