-The Telegraph New Delhi: The World Health Organisation has announced a plan to approve generic versions of two expensive bio-therapeutic anti-cancer molecules in an effort to make them available to low and middle-income countries. It said it would invite manufacturers to submit applications for pre-qualification of biologically similar versions of rituximab, used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and trastuzumab, used to treat breast cancer. The pre-qualification process is a mechanism...

-TheWire.in The government’s premier policy-formulating agency recently recommended measures to deregulate the pharmaceutical sector and make essential medicines more expensive. New Delhi: Even as the prime minister repeatedly expresses his commitment to providing affordable medicines in the country, it appears that the NITI Aayog and the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) may be working in an opposing direction. Documents between October 2016 and April 2017 show the intention of various government arms to...

-TheWire.in The insurance coverage in 2015 was 22.3%, with a government expenditure of Rs 2,955 crore. But by spending 4.5x since, how does the government admit to a coverage of only 23%? Farmer suicides and agrarian distress have likely never been among the national public debates as they are right now. A group of Tamil Nadu farmers, whose protests in New Delhi were dubbed ‘bizarre’ but who were actually desperate for debate and...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has invoked special powers under the law to prohibit stent makers from withdrawing their products from the market for the next six months. Amid reports that several manufacturers, including Abbott and Medtronic, are seeking to withdraw premium, high-priced stents from the Indian market on account of the price cap imposed by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the government has directed companies to maintain production,...

-TheWire.in Statistical analysis suggests that farmers in states that have amended the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act are less likely to commit suicide, but further reforms are needed to reduce the incidence of farmer suicides across the country. Every summer, it is the same old story: drought and farmers committing suicide in India. Between 2012 and 2015, over 10,000 farmers killed themselves. Farmer suicides are a major cause of political contention, despite...