-DNA Country’s first chief information commissioner (CIC), Wajahat Habibullah, told law and mass communication students about the true strength of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005. He said RTI Act is not a weapon to be used against the government but to strengthen the system, exposing the weaknesses within its functioning. He was speaking at a daylong workshop on ‘RTI and media—Partners for priority’ organised by Symbiosis Institute of Media and...
More »SEARCH RESULT
AIDAN proposes another pricing model for essential drugs by Khomba Singh
A non-government organisation campaigning for cheaper essential drugs has proposed an alternative pricing model that seeks to fix retail prices at the average price of all brands in a segment. The proposal of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) is being examined by the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP), an official said. AIDAN says its new pricing mechanism, which excludes brands that account for the top 20% by sales, will make...
More »Anil Bairwal, National Convenor of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) interviewed by rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa
A recent report put out by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch revealed that 47 per cent of the newly-elected Uttar Pradesh assembly has candidates with criminal cases pending against them. Barring Manipur, none of the other four states that went to polls is free of a tainted MLA. In Uttar Pradesh, the number of criminal MLAs has gone up from 37 per cent in 2007 to 47...
More »India's patent ruling on cancer may open door for cheaper HIV drugs
-Reuters India's move to strip German drugmaker Bayer of its exclusive rights to a cancer drug has set a precedent that could extend to other treatments, including modern HIV/AIDS drugs, in a major blow to global pharmaceutical firms, experts say. On Monday, the Indian Patent Office effectively ended Bayer's monopoly for its Nexavar drug and issued its first-ever compulsory license allowing local generic maker Natco Pharma to make and sell the drug...
More »Natco Pharma bags licence to sell Bayer's cancer drug Nexavar
-The Economic Times The government has allowed a local drugmaker to make and sell a patented cancer drug at a fraction of the price charged by Germany's Bayer AG, setting a precedent for more such efforts by Indian firms and heightening the global pharmaceutical industry's anxiety over the use of the controversial compulsory licensing provision. The outgoing patent controller of India, PH Kurian, on Monday granted the country's first compulsory licence to...
More »