Pharmaceuticals

TRUMP’s decision to withdraw from WHO is a continuation of his wielding a wrecking ball to the international framework of treaties and organisations. Whether it is arms control treaties, climate change, trade and now WHO, … Read more

In a recent public meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the government would take steps to reduce costs incurred on purchase of medicines by making it mandatory for doctors to prescribe medicines in generic name. … Read more

THE Seventy-Second Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health marks a strong indictment of the way in which clinical trials are being conducted in India. Before discussing the report, it is important to understand … Read more

In the past two years the UPA government, with considerable fanfare, has attempted to project a view that it is serious about bringing about radical changes as regards access to health care. A slew of … Read more

On 26th December 2004 the then UPA-I Government promulgated an ordinance — The Patents (Amendment) Ordinance, 2004. The ordinance was issued by the government to change the then existing Indian Patents Act in order to … Read more

The Government of aam admi is poised to act once again in the interests of big business and against the interests of a vast majority of the people in this country. It has been widely … 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