The Government of India has significantly strengthened entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the biopharmaceutical sector through a series of coordinated policy initiatives, funding mechanisms and institutional reforms, the Ministry of Science and Technology informed Parliament on Thursday.

At the centre of this effort is the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which established the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in 2012 as a not-for-profit public sector enterprise to nurture startups and innovation, particularly in healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biopharma. Since its inception, BIRAC has emerged as a key interface between the government, industry and academia, supporting startups, small and medium enterprises and innovators through targeted funding and incubation support.

Flagship schemes such as the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG), SPARSH, and equity-linked initiatives including the SEED and LEAP Funds have helped bridge the critical funding gap between ideation and commercialization. Nearly 1,000 startups and entrepreneurs have benefited from the BIG scheme, while SPARSH has awarded over 150 fellowships, leading to the creation of more than 100 startups and over 65 intellectual property assets.

To strengthen the broader innovation ecosystem, BIRAC has built a nationwide network of 94 incubation and pre-incubation centres across 25 states and Union Territories, supporting more than 3,000 incubates and fellows. Programmes such as BioNEST and E-YUVA have played a crucial role in empowering young innovators and scaling biotech technologies.

A major thrust to indigenous biopharma development has come through the National Biopharma Mission (NBM), a Cabinet-approved initiative implemented by BIRAC under the “Innovate in India (i3)” programme. The mission focuses on accelerating discovery research to early-stage product development through industry-academia collaboration, with particular emphasis on vaccines, biologics and medical devices addressing public health needs.

Under NBM, over 100 biopharma-oriented projects involving MSMEs and startups have been supported, alongside the creation of shared testing, validation and manufacturing facilities. The mission has delivered notable outcomes, including the development and commercialization of two COVID-19 vaccines—ZyCoV-D and Corbevax—along with biosimilar Liraglutide for diabetes, pegylated interferon alpha-2b, indigenous MRI scanners, single-use bioreactors, multiple COVID-19 diagnostic kits, ventilators and critical laboratory reagents.

The mission has also focused on ecosystem strengthening by supporting research and GMP manufacturing facilities that have delivered more than 500 services through 18 functional units. For the first time, India has established a network of seven Technology Transfer Offices to facilitate patent filings and technology commercialization, along with 46 GCP-compliant clinical trial sites to support vaccine and therapeutic trials.

Institutional reforms have further bolstered innovation. DBT has subsumed its 13 autonomous institutions into a single umbrella body—the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (BRIC)—to integrate multidisciplinary research, training and commercialization activities. Simplified operational guidelines now enable scientists to pursue entrepreneurship while in service.

In 2024, the government also rolled out the BioE3 policy to foster high-performance biomanufacturing, with a focus on economic growth, sustainability and employment generation. Under this initiative, biofoundries and biomanufacturing hubs are being established nationwide, including facilities dedicated to precision biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, mRNA-based therapies, and cell and gene therapies.

Infrastructure development is being complemented through projects like the Biopharma Growth Phase Park at Genome Valley in Hyderabad, supported under the National Biotechnology Park Scheme. The facility, currently under construction, is expected to provide startups and companies with scale-up manufacturing capabilities for proof-of-concept studies.

Parallelly, the Department of Pharmaceuticals is driving domestic production through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for pharmaceuticals, with an outlay of ₹15,000 crore. Biopharmaceuticals are a key eligible category under the scheme, offering incentives of up to 10 per cent on incremental sales. As of September 2025, 46 biopharmaceutical products, including vaccines, are being manufactured under the scheme, generating cumulative sales of ₹26,832 crore since FY 2022–23, with exports accounting for ₹16,290 crore.

The push for indigenous biopharma manufacturing extends beyond human health. Institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) are advancing veterinary biopharma entrepreneurship. Indigenous poultry vaccines and diagnostics are now being commercially produced, reducing import dependence, while multiple companies have taken up the manufacturing of the H9N2 avian influenza vaccine developed by ICAR–NIHSAD. Startups supported under the RKVY-RAFTAAR programme are also developing diagnostics and advanced biologics for animal health.

Meanwhile, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been promoting biopharma entrepreneurship through its network of laboratories and incubation centres. From GLP-compliant biopharma analysis facilities at Venture Centre, Pune, to indigenous bioprocess technologies at CSIR-IICT Hyderabad and diagnostic innovations at CSIR-CDRI Lucknow, CSIR institutions have enabled affordable technology transfers and strengthened industry partnerships. The Atal Incubation Centre at CSIR-CCMB Hyderabad alone has supported over 220 startups in the last seven years, facilitating investments worth ₹250 crore and multiple product launches.

Together, these initiatives underline the government’s multi-pronged strategy to position India as a global hub for biopharmaceutical innovation and manufacturing, while nurturing a strong domestic startup ecosystem rooted in indigenous research and technology.