-The Hindu Tropical diseases have often been neglected by pharmaceuticals because the size of the drug market is smaller, people have lower incomes and companies are uncertain about IPR January marked an important breakthrough in the fight against tropical diseases. Researchers and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Delhi found a drug candidate that prevented TB and malaria pathogens from infecting human blood cells. It is not just that...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: From July 1, you can walk up to a chemist and ask for a 'Jan Aushadhi' brand for your medicine, with the government set to launch its own brand to sell low cost generic medicines. The Centre will procure medicines in bulk from public as well as private drug manufacturing firms and rebrand them under 'Jan Aushadhi'. These will be sold in the retail market at...

-PTI New Delhi: The drug price regulator has sought details of patented medicines as part of a drive to fix their rates. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is also fixing the price ceiling for 102 drugs on the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) and has asked for financial data, like retail rates and the firms' turnover. On patented drugs imported or manufactured for sale in India, the NPPA has called for...

-The Times of India The union health ministry's target of distributing 50 drugs free under the free essential drug scheme is so much lower than the hundreds of drugs being provided by states with a functioning free drugs scheme that it has left health officials in these states puzzled. After starting off by talking of distributing 348 drugs in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) during the tenure of Dr Harsh...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: International health activists have joined their Indian counterparts in decrying what they say are Barack Obama's dual policy on big drug companies, pledging to break their stranglehold in the US but promoting their interests in India. The activists claimed yesterday that the India-US joint statement, issued during Obama's visit to India, contains signals that the Indian government could be preparing to weaken its intellectual property regulations on medicines,...