-The Economic Times Over a year ago, I had written a piece, Quo Vadis, Indian Pharma? (ET, May 11, 2012), in this column. Some key issues were highlighted in the article. Perhaps it is time to revisit the subject and bring out some current issues. Price control: Hurray, the department of pharmaceuticals has come out with a new non-intrusive price control methodology, moving from the cost-based model to the average market price...

-The Telegraph The proliferation and sales of anti-diabetes combination pills that contain two drugs to control blood sugar has stirred concerns in medical circles that a large proportion of diabetes patients in India are not receiving ideal treatment. A study by Indian and British researchers has shown that such two-drug combo pills accounted for more than half of the sales of all oral anti-diabetes medications in India last year, although doctors say...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: A doctor conducted drug trial on heart patients but seven of them died during trial of the drug. Moreover, another doctor conducted drug trials of different companies and 10 of his cancer patients died during the trials. An RTI filed by a government-run Indore hospital Dr Anand Rai exposed deaths leading to drug trials in entire country. Answering to the RTI, office ofdrug controller general, ministry of...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: You could be popping certain pills and combinations that are illegally approved, harmful, cleared without proper Clinical Trials or even banned in the US and other countries. Delivering a severe rap on the government's knuckles, a parliamentary standing committee on health has charged it with "dilly-dallying and procrastination'' over serious irregularities in approval of life-saving medicines, not following the global ban on harmful drugs, and failing...

-The Times of India As many as 2,644 people, called subjects, died during the Clinical Trials of 475 new drugs on human beings in last seven years and only 17 of the medicines were approved for marketing in India, the Centre has informed the Supreme Court. Responding to allegations by NGO, Swasthya Adhikar Manch, in its PIL that Indians were used as guinea pigs by foreign pharmaceutical majors for human trial of...