Call For Proposal

Program Overview - NBM
This is an Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission for Accelerating Discovery Research to Early Development for Biopharmaceuticals - “Innovate in India (i3) Empowering biotech entrepreneurs & accelerating inclusive innovation”, also referred to as National Biopharma Mission (NBM).

Funding agency
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) (Program co-funded by World Bank loan)
Implementing agency
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

This program is to seek Request for Proposals (RFP) for supporting – Development of products active against sensitive and drug resistant microbial pathogens mentioned in the Indian Priority Pathogen list (mainly, E. coli, Klebsiella Pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumanii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). The products should have established proof of principle including but not limited to the following -:

• New Chemical Entities or antibiotics from a new class with a novel mechanism of action (first in class), or pre-existing class of drugs (best in class), Repurposed Drugs, Combination with existing drugs
• Therapeutics which may be broad-spectrum or pathogen-specific antimicrobial Peptides, genetically-engineered antibodies, Immunomodulators, molecules that modulate virulence or pathogenicity, Microbiome modulating agents, bacteriophage therapies

Scope of the Call:

• a) The diagnostic should have demonstrated proof of concept (Completed TRL-3* stage as per BIRAC TRL definitions - https://www.birac.nic.in/desc_new.php?id=44)
• b) The diagnostic should detect at least one and preferably two of the critical bacterial pathogens as prioritized in the Indian Priority Pathogen List developed by WHO India and the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, and/or test their susceptibility profiles3
• c) The areas of support may include validation of prototypes or production technologies; adaptation of products or platform technologies to new applications; manufacturing and scale-up for deployment
• d) The diagnostic should fulfil at least one or more of the following criteria:
•  
• 1) Rapid detection test (with test time of <4 hours) that differentially detect and identify species
• 2) Culture-independent and should focus on direct detection of the target pathogen(s) from primary samples
• 3) Point-of-Care Tests/kits (POCT) that can be manufactured at large scale

The proposals can be submitted:

a) Solely by Indian Company / LLP/ Non-profit organizations/ Society/ Trusts/ Foundation/Associations/ Government entities/ Institutes/ R&D Organizations/ which is a legal entity OR

b) Jointly by Indian Companies/ Non-profit organizations / LLP/ Society/ Trusts/ Foundation/Associations/ Government entities/ Institutes/ R&D Organizations/ OR

c) By an Industry-academia consortium of Indian Company/ Non-profit organizations/ LLP/Society/ Trusts/ Foundation/ Association/ Government entities/ Institutes/ R&D

Organizations

a) Indian Start-up companies in collaboration with Industry/Academia/research institutes/ are specially encouraged to apply.

Process for submitting the proposals online is detailed below:
a. Go to BIRAC’s website or Go the URL: https://www.birac.nic.in/nbm/
b. Click on the RFP on NBM link under Programs and the active call would be highlighted.
c. Click on the active call against which you wish to submit the proposal.
d. Further details on ‘How to Submit a Proposal’ would be available in the User Guide
available on the website.
e. If you are a registered user, log-in using the credentials, else you need to register your
company/organization by clicking on New User Registration.
f. In case of new user registration, a computer-generated link will be sent to the email-id
provided at the time of registration to generate a password.
g. Once you login, you will be navigated to the proposal submission page under NBM link.

Announcement Date: 10-03-2023
Last Submission Date: 24-04-2023 05:00 PM