-The Telegraph New Delhi: Countries negotiating a global declaration on tuberculosis are under pressure to give up their rights to use existing provisions in world trade laws to provide affordable second-line and new anti-TB drugs to their populations, an international humanitarian agency said on Friday. Medecins Sans Frontieres said the US was "exerting extreme pressure" on other negotiators by refusing to sign the declaration if it retained text that "recognises the importance...

-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...

-TheWire.in Pesticide poisoning is the leading method of suicide among both men and women in the country. It is also the method that is easiest to prevent – by banning and removing highly hazardous ones from agricultural practice through legislation. The ban on highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) currently being discussed in India will not only protect the environment and improve the public health but will also achieve another rarely acknowledged goal –...

-The Times of India The transfer of the chairman of the National Pharmceutical Pricing Authority, Bhupendra Singh, who had capped the price of stents and knee implants and exposed the huge margins being charged by corporate hospitals has evoked howls of protest from public health activists. RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch too has taken exception to the move, tweeting sarcastically about the “reward” given to a bureaucrat for doing a good job. The All...

-TheWire.in While the government claims it “will bring healthcare system closer to the homes of people,” it hopes to do this through the private sector, not by strengthening the public health system. Health is being hailed as the biggest winner of Budget 2018, but a cursory look at the numbers shows that there is nothing to celebrate as far as the health budget is concerned. In fact, the Budget this year once...