-The Business Standard Patient safety & quality our guidance now, says Sawhney Trouble-hit Ranbaxy Laboratories has introduced a whistle-blower policy within the company to encourage transparency and address concerns internally, so that bigger problems could be averted. In his first interaction with the media (the first part of which was published on Sunday) since the drug maker pleaded guilty of making fraudulent statements to the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) under its...

-The Business Standard Why have Indian authorities woken up to the Ranbaxy case only now? The matter had been simmering for several years The Ranbaxy affair is one of the darkest chapters of India's business history. The company has admitted it fudged data so that it could launch its products in the United States. It has now paid $500 million as a penalty to settle the case. It is worse than Ramalinga...

-The Hindu The Commerce and Industry Ministry, on Thursday, issued new guidelines for pharmaceutical makers to comply with the European Union (EU) Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. In a statement issued here, the Ministry says such a move will give a boost to pharma exports from India. "India has demonstrated its keenness to meet international requirements for exports of pharmaceutical products yet again by taking timely action for complying with the new...

-The Telegraph A physicians-led health group has expressed fears that the Centre is straying from plans to provide free essential Medicines at public hospitals and to introduce universal healthcare services through tax revenues. The non-government Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) has said the plans for free essential Medicines and an expansion and strengthening of public health services in rural areas appear to be in jeopardy because of inadequate health budget allocations. In a letter...

-Frontline The Central government's proposal to hand over the supply of supplementary nutrition to NGOs in the name of "community participation" is surely an invitation for private profiteering on the back of this supposedly public scheme. ENSURING safe and healthy conditions for the reproduction of the population is obviously the most fundamental requirement of any society. So the progress of a society can be determined (and indeed is routinely judged) by the...