-The Times of India NEW DELHI: To promote low-cost generic medicines, the government’s top drug regulatory board has allowed Jan Aushadhi Kendras — which are like fair price shops for medicines under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana — to substitute doctor’s prescription with a generic brand. On Thursday, the Drugs Technical Advisory Board cleared a proposal to amend a rule under the drugs law. “This proposal asking permission for chemists to...

-The Hindu Consumption of poor quality medicines could be accelerating drug resistance. India has to share some of the blame It is common for patients to stop taking medicines as soon as they start feeling better. Doctors have blamed this particular habit — of not completing the entire dose of antibiotics — to the emergence of drug resistant strains in diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB). However, experts say that under-dosing,...

-The Hindu The disease cannot be eliminated without universal access to affordable, quality diagnostics and drugs After decades spent battling the scourge of tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries, 2018 might be the year that it is finally accorded the gravitas it deserves. On September 26, the UN General Assembly will, for the first time, address TB in a High-Level Meeting and likely release a Political Declaration, endorsed by all member nations, to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Patients' rights advocates in India on Tuesday filed two oppositions in the Indian patent office, challenging patent claims by the US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences for its medicines sofosbuvir and velpatasvir, used to treat hepatitis-C infections. The oppositions filed by the Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+) challenge Gilead's patent applications for the tablet formulations of the fixed dose combination of sofosbuvir and velpatasvir and a new form...

-The Hindu Business Line The Ayushman Bharat programme must aim to reverse poverty caused by healthcare expenses The state of India’s healthcare system is somewhat dichotomous — the country is a global supplier of life-saving, affordable and good quality generic medicines, yet lakhs of families are driven into poverty because they are forced to spend much of their earnings and savings on medications to treat chronic and life-threatening diseases. The poor, particularly,...