-The News Minute The use of plastic or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for packaging medicines such as syrups and liquid orals has been banned by the government. Reports say that this ban will lead a price hike for certain drugs meant for children, women and senior citizens. According to a Times of India report SV Veeramani, president, Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) confirmed the move, "There would be estimated 25-30% cost increase...

-Economic and Political Weekly The National Democratic Alliance government has constituted the IPR Think Tank which, among other things, is to draft the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. India may not have a policy per se but it has a strong legislation on IPRs, a functioning patents office and mechanisms to grant patents as well as protect consumer interests. The Think Tank has other issues it needs to address, but is...

-The Business Standard The recent US-India friction over trade is being driven by Big Pharma Apart from the deterioration of the business environment generally, which impacts both domestic and foreign investors, retrospective taxation has figured most prominently in the media as the principal cause of growing scepticism among foreign investors. Entirely missing from the discourse has been an equally potent factor with wholly foreign origins: the hijacking of the economic policy...

-Frontline   The Supreme Court's ruling against Novartis' patent claim for the cancer drug Glivec paves the way for generic drug companies to keep crucial, life-saving drugs affordable to the common people. By V. VENKATESAN IN their 112-page judgment delivered on April 1, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai of the Supreme Court began with a simple proposition: in order to understand what the law really is, it is essential to...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: A drug maker found overcharging will have to shell out the entire sales revenue of the medicine from the date of its launch as penalty, according to a directive issued by the country's drug price regulator. "If a company has not been booked for overcharging for selling the product without price approval, if any, pertaining to the period prior to fixation of the price of the said formulation,...