The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), with support from the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS), has announced seven awarded applicants for the inaugural edition of the C-CAMP One Health AMR Challenge 2025, tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across human, animal, and environmental health. This initiative is part of the larger India AMR Innovation Hub programme at C-CAMP that has been officially declared as the Innovation Arm of India’s National Action Plan 2.0 NAP 2.0 on AMR, which includes One Health as one of the country’s focus areas in its AMR combat and prevention strategy.
The selected applicants will be awarded by C-CAMP in India with support of ICARS through i) grant funding, ii) technical, business, regulatory and Intellectual Property (IP) support and also iii) deployment facilitation in India and other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The Challenge aims to accelerate the translation of One Health focused innovations into impactful, scalable and economically viable products and services in India and geographies beyond where the AMR burden is high, and One Health awareness and regulations are among the most susceptible.
This C-CAMP One Health AMR Challenge, which was launched in July 2025, received about 100 high-quality applications from innovators and startup companies across India, demonstrating the awareness, keenness and depth of India’s biotech innovation community in addressing complex AMR issues beyond new drugs and policies. In October 2025, ICARS (for AMR scientific parts) and C-CAMP leadership and independent experts convened over two days to discuss and evaluate 26 shortlisted innovations. Seven of these applicants wereselected for support.
Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, Director-CEO, C-CAMP said:
“I am delighted to unveil the winners of the inaugural edition of C-CAMP ICARS One Health AMR Challenge 2025. We have identified a pipeline of seven innovative solutions addressing critical gaps such as point of care tests to distinguish bacterial from viral infections in clinical care especially in respiratory tract infections (RTI), detection of specific RTI pathogens, treatment of pharmaceutical manufacturing units effluents, prevention of antibiotic use in aquaculture and dairy and so on. The first cohort holds great potential for combating AMR. We look forward to working with all national and international stakeholders with the guidance of the office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India to provide comprehensive ecosystem support from idea-stage to deployment and implementation of these innovative solutions at the industry, agriculture and public health levels.”
Dr. Sujith J. Chandy, Executive Director, ICARS said:
“ICARS is pleased to partner with C-CAMP to advance a strong pipeline of One Health innovations that address key drivers of AMR. The seven selected solutions combine scientific rigour with clear potential for implementation in LMIC settings. We aim to accelerate their transition from promising ideas to real-world impact. This inaugural cohort of innovations reflects India’s growing leadership in AMR mitigation, underscored by Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s recent speech highlighting the urgent need to address AMR. We look forward to supporting evidence-based solutions that are preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic, with the goal of reducing inappropriate antibiotic use for bacterial infections across human, animal, and environmental health.
The winners are:
Human Health
- Bigtec Labs Pvt. Ltd. – A multiplexed, reverse transcription (RT)-PCR diagnostic solution that addresses antibiotic resistance in lower respiratory tract infections
- Muse Diagnostics – TreBle Respire: AI-driven screening platform for early detection of respiratory infections and antimicrobial stewardship.
- GenePath Diagnostics – Affordable, comprehensive, modular, semi-quantitative respiratory pathogens and AMR detection panel for open PCR platforms
- Achira Labs – Development and validation of a papid point-of-care test to distinguish bacterial from viral infections in humans: A Strategy to optimize antimicrobial stewardship
Environment
- FNDR – Depletion of antimicrobials and other active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from pharmaceutical/chemical manufacturing unit effluents.
Animal Health
- Ultranutri – Circular solutions for shrimp health: Tackling AMR through insect-based feed
- Chimertech – Quadmastest & Inline Quadmastest (IQ): Rapid, reagent-free early mastitis detection to prevent unwarranted antibiotic use and curb AMR in dairy health
C-CAMP and ICARS announced their partnership on 14th October 2024, in New Delhi. The event was presided over by Prof. Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India and Chair of India AMR Innovation Hub (IAIH), and His Excellency Freddy Svane, the then Ambassador at the Royal Danish Embassy in India, along with the ICARS Board of Directors. Through this partnership, ICARS joined hands with C-CAMP and the IAIH to support innovations for addressing the unmet needs of AMR in India. The vision of the joint effort to identify and nurture affordable and accessible tools and innovative solutions to tackle the AMR problems in the One Health sectors and support decision-making for the appropriate use of antibiotics in India.
