-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government is set to expand the coverage of its Jan Aushadhi scheme. It will offer 439 life-saving medicines, including cancer and cardiovascular drugs, as well as 250 medical devices like stents and implants at 40-50% discounted prices. The department of pharmaceuticals plans to open 300 Jan Aushadhi stores across the country by March and another 3,000 by 2017. Presently, only 45 medicines are available in...
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Affordable Drugs Need a Compensatory Patent Commons -Shamnad Basheer
-TheWire.in In a case that will once again prove that India is not out to arbitrarily purge all pharmaceutical patents, the Delhi high court has ruled in favour of Roche, a Swiss multinational. Many years ago, Roche dragged Cipla to court arguing that Cipla’s product infringed its patented anticancer drug, Erlotinib (brand name ‘Tarceva’). After a protracted legal battle fought over seven hard years, Roche finally won. But so did Cipla. Indeed,...
More »Hepatitis C cure may cost as low as Rs 67k -Reema Nagarajan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move that comes as a huge relief to patients of chronic Hepatitis C, the apex committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has granted a waiver of local trials for crucial new direct-acting antiviral drugs treating the disease. The waiver for sofosbuvir and ledipasvir co-formulation and for daclatasvir is expected to bring the generic version of these drugs, which cost a fraction...
More »Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS, speaks to Vidya Krishnan
-The Hindu We need to take AIDS out of isolation and look at it in a broader framework, with links to maternal and child health, says Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS. Speaking on the sidelines of the India Africa Forum Summit, Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS, admitted to being ‘scared’ as pressure mounts on India to relax norms, allowing patent protection. In a conversation with Vidya Krishnan, Mr. Sidibe also spoke...
More »India to supply generic cancer drug to US -Chidanand Rajghatta
-The Times of India WASHINGTON: India has agreed to supply to the United States generic cancer drugs at a time there is outrage in America about the predatory practices by the US pharma industry, one of whose leaders is getting hammered for increasing the price of life-saving drugs by as much as 5000 per cent overnight. Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, is being dubbed the ''poster child for price gouging in...
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