-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The drug price regulator has capped prices of 30 medicines including antibiotics and those used in treatment of diabetes, tuberculosis and malaria. The move is expected to bring down prices of most of these medicines by 25-30%. However, in some cases the reduction could be by as much as 50%. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), which has the mandate to regulate prices of essential medicines,...

-The Hindu It was resolved that all IMA members shall write drugs with chemical or generic name in capital letters A resolution was passed at the recent working committee meeting of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) that is likely to have the direct benefit of making drugs more accessible and affordable. It was resolved that all IMA members “shall write drugs with chemical or generic name in capital letters, and the name of...

-The Times of India PUNE: Family physician Dr Kumar Mandhare has been practising for 27 years in Koregaon Park in Pune, treating a wide variety of patients. Over the last few years, however, he has observed a new set of patients - on whom once-effective antibiotics drugs don't work. He pegs their number at 30 to 40% of the patients he gets, usually people who have found a quick fix solution to...

-The Hindu The failure of successive governments in India, especially those in States that have the highest mortality rates among children younger than five years, to address the critical issue of training health-care providers in rural areas to correctly diagnose and treat children suffering from diarrhoea and pneumonia, has had tragic consequences. These ailments account for the maximum number of under-5 mortality incidence in the country. That the poor management...

-The Hindu Chennai: The reason why a large number of children under the age of five years die of diarrhoea and pneumonia, generally in rural India and especially in Bihar, has become clear. Diarrhoea and pneumonia are the biggest killer diseases in children in India. With 55 per 1,000 live births, Bihar has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. But 340 health care providers in rural Bihar rarely practice what...