-Express News Service The Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC) in the city, on Wednesday, announced that it had isolated a molecule that fights both tuberculosis and some strains of HIV. Researchers isolated the molecule from a marine microorganism Streptomyces sp found in soil collected near coral reefs off the Rameshwaram coast. They found that the molecule was effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes most forms of TB. The molecule also acts...

-The Hindu   Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Thursday demanded action against those responsible for allowing Clinical Trials of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat without following the guidelines and ethics. Speaking at a seminar organised by the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) here on “Cervical Cancer Vaccine — Consequences” the CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member said the poor in the country were...

Rs 3 lakh – that's the price a pharmaceutical company has paid to the family of a person who died in their clinical trial. Others weren't even this lucky. According to the Drug Controller General of India's (DCGI) records, 25 people died in Clinical Trials carried out by nine pharmaceutical companies in 2010. Families of five of these victims received "compensation for trial related death" — the amount ranging from Rs...

After a government report confirmed major ethical violations in trials of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines on Indian schoolgirls, senior doctors are calling for transparency in Clinical Trials conducted under private-public partnerships. The report is yet to be placed in the public domain, but its contents were revealed early May by senior doctors who assisted in its preparation, sparking outrage among public health advocates and women’s rights groups. HPV is an umbrella...

-The Hindu   Consent forms signed by higher authorities on behalf of adolescent girls ‘Interests of NGO, business prioritised over that of people' Due attention was not paid to the adverse side effects and vaccine-related problems Expressing concern over the “shocking” irregularities and violation of medical ethics in the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine trial, revealed by the final HPV enquiry report and its findings, the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has demanded fixing...