The ministry of Science & Technology is planning to increase the corpus amount of the Pharmaceuticals Research and Development Support Fund (PRDSF) Programme by another Rs 150 crore, making the total fund amount to Rs 300 crore. Currently, the fund has an amount of Rs 150 crore in PRDSF. The total PRDSF fund has an additional sum of Rs 22 crore also, it is learnt.

PRDSF was set up in April 2004 by the ministry of science and technology to support research in all systems of medicines including setting up of facilities.

"We are allowed to invest only the interest amount of the total fund in research projects of companies. The current year, we are looking towards investing Rs 32 crore (Rs 10 crore of the interest + Rs 22 crore)," said Dr. S N Khan, a scientist with the Department of Science & Technology. The Fund aims at providing financial assistance on research to small companies and start-ups, she said.

The Fund will support the joint research projects of industry and institution. The fund has plans to provide soft loans for pharma industrial R&D projects. Some of the key features of financial assistance include - loan amount up to 70 per cent of the project cost, unsecured loans carrying an interest of 3 per cent on reducing amount, repayment of the loan in 10 annual equal instalments after the project period.