-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Various drug price regulatory measures by the government helped consumers save Rs 4,988 crore over the last two years, Rajya Sabha was told on Thursday. Following approval of the pharmaceutical pricing policy in 2012, the government has capped prices of essential medicines at least three times since 2013, when the policy was first implemented by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority through the Drugs Price Control Order...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Free health-care services during childbirth remain a pipe dream for most of India's poor, whether it relates to diagnostic tests, medicines, transport or even food, despite the Union health ministry launching a "free entitlements" programme five years ago. The families of most women who seek childbirth in government hospitals are forced to pay for supposedly "free" services, at times experiencing catastrophic expenditures likely to accentuate their poverty, two...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Around 61 per cent of people prefer to buy medicines online, a survey has showed, highlighting a major change in consumer trend, even as the battle between offline and online chemists has intensified. Over 8 lakh chemists recently threatened to go on indefinite strike if the government failed to regulate online sales. The survey, conducted by Consumer Online Foundation and market research firm BRIEF (Bureau of...

-PTI Prices of 42 essential medicines used in treatment of various ailments including tuberculosis, cancer, cardiac diseases, asthma, epilepsy and depression have been capped by the government, reducing their cost by up to 15 per cent. Drug price regulator, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), in a notification on its website, said it “has fixed/revised ceiling prices of 45 scheduled formulations of Schedule-I under Drugs (Price Control) Amendment Order, 2016.” “Out of the 45,...

-The Hindu The RCEP is a regional trade agreement being negotiated between the 10 ASEAN countries currently in Auckland. Humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned India that the country will not remain ‘pharmacy of the developing world’ if the proposals in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) are adopted. The RCEP is a regional trade agreement being negotiated between the 10 ASEAN countries currently in Auckland. MSF Access Campaign...