-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today refrained from passing any order on a plea for early listing of a PIL that had sought closure of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, recently penalised by US authorities for allegedly supplying adulterated and substandard Drugs. The public interest petition sought registration of criminal cases under the penal code and also the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1947, against company officials for allegedly cheating millions of patients in the...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: It's widely known that a month's dose of cancer Drugs can cost lakhs, but what isn't common knowledge is that Tata Memorial Hospital's doctors are working on alternatives that could cost less than Rs 1,000 a month. Dubbed the metronomic treatment protocol, it comprises daily consumption of a combination of low-dose medicines that are cheap because they have been around for decades. "There is no need to...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rapped pharma giant Hospira for serious lapses in manufacturing of Drugs at its Sriperumbudur unit. The US agency has warned the firm that this could result in Drugs made at the plant not being allowed entry into the US. Hospira, in a regulatory filing, said it had received a warning letter from the agency . The letter followed an...

-The Business Standard Govt should streamline its free medicines plan The Centre is reportedly going to shelve a plan to procure generic Drugs for free supply to patients throughout the country. This is a serious error. Reportedly, states will instead be asked to do so; but, if a perceived inability to procure, stock and distribute these Drugs is the reason for backtracking on the plan, how precisely will states be free of...

-The Hindu Seven years after the first warning in June 2006 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and five years after the Department of Justice initiated legal proceedings against the company, Ranbaxy is back in the news for the same wrong reasons. Last fortnight it pleaded guilty to felony charges in the U.S., admitting to selling adulterated Drugs with intent to defraud, not reporting that its Drugs failed...