The Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, and Invest India are organizing a Felicitation Ceremony for the winning start-ups of the ‘Pharma & Medical Devices Startup Grand Challenge’ through a video conference on Monday, 18th of October, 2021 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The felicitation ceremony shall have Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog as the Guest of Honour, to encourage and congratulate the startups on their exemplary innovations. The event would also host noticeable stakeholders from the industry, celebrating the enormous efforts being undertaken by Indian innovators towards nation-building.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals launched the‘Pharma & Medical Devices Startup Grand Challenge’on February 26, 2021, at the ‘India Pharma & India Medical Device 2021’ Conference to provide impetus to innovation in these sectors and further spur economic growth. The Government Partners for the Startup Grand Challenge are the National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education& Research (NIPERs) at Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, Invest India, and Startup India and Enabler Partners are Laurus Labs andBoston Scientific.
Applications for the program were hosted on the Startup India portal – www.startupindia.gov.in. A webinar was also conducted as part of the program to create awareness around the importance of innovation & new technologies in the pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. Out of 310 startup applications received for the Startup Challenge, 218 were in the Medical Devices sector and 92 were in the Pharmaceuticals sector.
17 startups were shortlisted from the Medical Devices sector and 5 startups from the Pharmaceuticals sector for the second round of evaluation, where they pitched their ideas to an eminent jury panel over a video conference. After a rigorous two-stage evaluation process, four startups have been identified as winners and runners-up for both sectors. The two winning startups shall receive a cash grant of INR 15 Lakh each, and two runners-up would receive INR 7 Lakh each. Moreover, a dedicated mentor will be assigned to all four startups for 6 months, and a virtual Demo Day would be organized in the coming months for the top 20+ startups that made it to the second round of evaluation for the program, where they would pitch their ideas to officials from the Government Ministries/ Departments, Cooperatives, Corporate bodies, Investors, etc.
The Indian Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices sectors are contributing significantly to the advancement of the Indian economy. The country enjoys an important position in the global pharmaceuticals sector. Globally, India ranks 3rdin terms of pharmaceutical production by volume and 14th by value. Designated as the sunrise sectorunder the Make in India campaign, India is counted amongst the top 20 global medical devices market in the world and is the 4th largest market in Asia after Japan, China, and South Korea. Moreover, during COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of startups entered the domain, fuelled by strong investor interest.