-The Hindu CDSCO sends letter to manufacturers Alerted by the Union Health Ministry’s pharmaceutical watchdog, the National Co-ordination Centre of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI), on adverse reactions that were being reported from some commonly-used antibiotics, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has now asked manufacturers to ensure that this information be made available to the general public. CDSCO has written to drug manufacturers, to mention in leaflets inserted into drug...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as an attempt to delay launch of low priced generic medicines, multinational drug makers have asked the government to create a registry providing information about all drug applications pending manufacturing and marketing approval. The proposal, if accepted by the government, will help ‘big pharma’ pre-emptively challenge generic drug makers in court for allegedly infringing upon their patents and in turn blocking...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Prices of essential medicines, including painkillers, anti-infectives, supplements and antibiotics, will go up by over 4%, after the government gave its nod to the increase, in line with the annual Wholesale Price Index (WPI). Hike in prices of cardiac stents have also been allowed on the basis of WPI at 4.26% for calendar year 2018. The revision in prices of both stents and medicines will come...

-The Telegraph Call to govt to adopt 'cost-based' control The 30 per cent cap on profit margins imposed by India’s drug pricing authority on 42 anti-cancer drugs will have a limited impact on patients’ expenses because many of these medicines’ prices remain “prohibitive”, a network of patients’ rights groups said on Saturday. The All India Drug Action Network (Aidan) said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s cap on profit margins in effect “legitimises” the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has capped trade margins of 42 cancer drugs at 30% expanding the span of price control to curtail undue profiteering by chemists and drug stockists on various medicines which were so far outside price regulation. The move is expected to bring major relief to around 1.5 million cancer patients in India reeling under exponentially high treatment cost leading to heavy out-of-pocket expenditure. In a detailed...