Articles

THE capital city of Delhi, among the most polluted cities in the world, has been set by the Supreme Court upon a chaotic and painful course of having to ensure that all public transport buses … Read more

THE devastating earthquake in Gujarat centred in the Kutch region reminds us once more of the devastation that can be unleashed by natural events. The loss of tens of thousands of lives, the injuries caused … Read more

LAST week many people all over the world observed Earth Day, on the thirtieth year since it was declared, and the national dailies carried photographs of the Prime Minister with school children carrying placards and … Read more

We live in strange times indeed. If we look at the reporting on public health, even in India, we will conclude that the Mad Cow disease or BSE is the most serious public health menace … Read more

THE media gave wide publicity recently to an apparently trivial little item. The well-known ‘animal-rights’ activist and Hollywood bimbo of yesteryear, Brigitte Bardot, as a mouthpiece of the militantly extremist animal-rights organisation, PETA, had offered … Read more

AN International symposium on TRIPS and access to medicines was organised by the National Working Group on Patent Laws and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) on June 4. This was followed by a Working … Read more

The global Pharmaceutical Industry, for once, has become the villain rather than the darling of the international media. Publications as diverse as the British Medical Journal, the Time Magazine, the New York Times, and even … Read more

THE wolves are baying at the door, once again calling for further decontrol in the prices of drugs. Since comprehensive price controls were imposed on drugs in 1979, drug companies have continuously clamoured for their … Read more

Twenty-eight men and women were already dead while an expert panel of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were huddled together to decide what government regulators should do about Warner-Lambert’s controversial diabetes drug Rezulin. … Read more

THE Indian government has prepared a draft of the amended Patents Act, designed to comply with the obligations under the WTO agreement. The draft is going through a process of consultations, and is likely to … Read more

THE United States government and the US pharmaceutical industry are fighting hard to prevent the compulsory licensing of essential drugs, particularly AIDS drugs, in developing countries. Already pressure has been brought to bear on the … Read more

AS a consequence of having become a signatory to the TRIPS agreement (as part of the WTO agreement), India was required to amend its Patent Act by January 1, 2005. While there were various obligations … Read more