-The Telegraph New Delhi: Doctors who receive gifts from pharmaceutical companies are more likely to prescribe expensive versions of medicines and more drugs per patient, a US study released on Wednesday suggested. The study is among the first to quantitatively measure the impacts of such gifts and challenges claims by sections of pharmaceutical industry executives that industry gifts are not intended to influence prescriptions doctors write. Health policy researchers who analysed prescription patterns...

-Down to Earth Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere? In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India’s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer’s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India’s decision was baffling because Pfizer’s patent has been rejected...

-Livemint.com Govt plans to?help firms revamp manufacturing units,?refurbish machinery,?ensure subsidized power in bid to produce drugs such as penicillin at competitive rates New Delhi: The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), during a meeting on Wednesday, urged pharma companies to strive for self-sufficiency in critical drugs like penicillin, rifampicin and insulin, in a sign of government concern over India’s dependence on Chinese imports. A large number of so-called active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), or bulk drugs,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move to ensure efficacy of medicines sold in India, the drug regulator has made it mandatory for companies to include Indian patients in global clinical trials if they want to market in India a new drug developed outside the country. The decision was taken in a recent technical committee meeting, headed by director general of health services Jagdish Prasad. The committee, which was formed...

-Livemint.com India’s new industrial policy is an opportunity to address the problems of low R&D spending and tough competition from cheap Chinese imports The framing of the new industrial policy should be seen as an opportunity to chart a meaningful path for industry’s role in India’s development. The recently released discussion paper by the department of industrial policy and promotion mentions two points that need to be examined closely to grasp the...