-The Telegraph The Union cabinet today approved a controversial drug pricing policy that had been opposed by the health ministry, the finance ministry and public health policy experts who fear it will legitimise high prices of medicines. A government source said the cabinet has cleared the drug pricing policy that health experts suspect will determine caps on prices of 348 drugs through a formula based on market prices of drugs rather than...

-Live Mint There are also ways in which we can help Indian institutions that have come to us seeking access to our technologies Bangalore: A key perception change is emerging in the global pharmaceutical industry on the long-established divide between the so-called generics and innovative business. While the two are still at loggerheads in several developed as well as developing markets, the world’s top drugmakers are reinventing the wheel. Paris-based Sanofi SA,...

-The Business Standard The proposed pharma pricing policy may give room to drug makers to escape price control. While the policy is primarily aimed at making essential medicines affordable, many feel the spirit is missing in the recommendations put forward by a group of ministers a few days ago. For instance, the ministerial panel has proposed to regulate prices of only 348 essential medicines and keep combination products out of control —...

-Frontline Members of denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, treated as criminal tribes by the colonial rulers, have no place to call their own and no land, no rights, and no support from the government.  Emaciated, eyes sunken deep into sockets, skin hanging loose, almost gasping for breath, Indro Devi and Sarvnath, a couple in their eighties, lie on polythene sheets in an 8×10 square-foot tent made of rags, by a stinking nullah...

-The Wall Street Journal/ Live Mint More than 60 million pushed below poverty line in India by healthcare costs in 2011 More than 60 million people were pushed below the poverty line in India by healthcare costs in 2011, said the Lancet medical journal, making a case for universal health coverage (UHC) in its latest issue. This comes amid international debate on the role of insurance, Affordable Medicines and access to healthcare. The...