-AP New Delhi: Doctors Without Borders has challenged Pfizer’s application for an Indian patent for its pneumonia vaccine so cheaper versions can be available to children in poor countries and to humanitarian organisations. The medical aid group, also known as Medicins Sans Frontieres, said in a statement late on Friday that it was challenging Pfizer’s patent application to allow Indian manufacturers to make affordable versions of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. If Pfizer is...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: International humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres has filed an application to block US pharmaceutical company Pfizer from obtaining a patent in India for a vaccine against pneumonia and allow Indian vaccine manufacturers to make low-cost versions. The patent opposition moved by MSF has claimed that Pfizer's patent application, which describes methods of conjugating 13 serotypes (strains) of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae into a single carrier vaccine, does not...

-TheWire.in The government appears bent on decisively abandoning the earlier consensus of adherence to public health goals. In what is widely being hailed as an extraordinary victory for the multinational pharmaceutical industry over the Indian government, the US-India Business Council (USIBC), in its submission to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), reports that the Indian government has “privately assured” the industry that it would not use compulsory licences (CLs) for commercial purposes....

-The Hindu The Lawyers Collective has issued a clarification on March 10 on issues relating to allegations of violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Lawyers Collective (LC) has accused the government of making a “deliberate and sustained effort to target and vilify” the 35-year-old public trust and its chief functionaries, including former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising, by accusing them of violations under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) (FCRA) Act, 2010. In a...

-The Hindu Business Line Govt acts on a letter from farmers’ union on bollworm developing resistance to technology   Hyderabad: Even as it announced a nation-wide uniform price for cottonseed for the upcoming kharif season, the Union government has asked Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Limited why it should not revoke the patent it granted for the Bollgard II technology. The Department of Industry Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has served a show cause notice to...