Beware of Japan's trade ambitions

Japan is pushing for higher levels of intellectual property protection that will cut access to affordable medicines

Drought impact: Acute malnutrition among children rises 40% in Somalia & Somaliland

Families in Somalia taking extreme measures to survive

Boost to pharma production: Africa inches closer to setting up own drug regulator as member states ratify treaty

Agency will ensure drug manufacturers get approval from all African Union member states without a lengthy bureaucratic process

Lessons learnt tackling COVID-19 can be used in global AMR response: Report

Increased investment, availability and accessibility of health infrastructure and global cooperation key to tackling AMR, it says 

Rajasthan’s Right To Health Bill lacks teeth, say experts

Implementation timeframe, process missing from document

Effective oral drug for Hepatitis C approved by European agencies

Various patent barriers hinder its availability and affordability, especially in countries with high burden of disease

COVID vaccines pillar COVAX to wind down by year-end, left with billions unspent

Vaccine delivery to shift to regular programmes

Vaccine hope

While Africa gets its first vaccine to fight malaria, India is still in the early stages of clinical trials

Medicines Pool Swirls

Drug companies are slowly joining the UN effort to offer life-saving patented medicines to poor countries but the terms are sometimes restrictive

Profits and not improving accessibility matter to Indian drug makers

FICCI conference organised to discuss access to generic medicines focuses more on increasing exports

Accident at Sainor unit in Vizag more proof of companies bypassing rules

Life-saving equipments were absent on-site though the company had approvals to show they were present

AAP promises to improve health set-up and promote generic medicines in Delhi

Party says it will address health concerns of both the elderly and the young if it is voted to power

Getting the drug equation right

Sonal Matharu reports how fights over counterfeit drugs and low-quality drugs is suppressing the larger issue of drug safety

Drug pricing policies bent to favour pharma industry, allege health experts

Nearly 83 per cent medicines out of the ambit of price control policy, thus making them out of reach for most patients, say two recent reports

Obama takes first dip

The US becomes the first to join a global patents pool to make AIDS drugs cheaper but health workers are sceptical of the initiative

Mission health for all

What prime minister needs to do to make good his promise on making 12th Five-Year Plan a health plan

US authority approves more efficacious hepatitis C drug

Sofosbuvir's prohibitive cost will put it out of reach of most patients in developing countries, including India

Ranbaxy launches new anti-malarial drug

It has an efficacy rate of over 95 per cent, claims company

ACTA fury goes viral

Europe is on the boil over an anti-piracy bill that will curb Internet freedom but its impact on trade in generic medicines is not on the radar

Predatory EU pacts

EU is pushing India and Canada to sign free trade agreements that will hurt their generic drugs—and the outrage is global

Indian company gets licence to manufacture and sell patented cancer drug

This is the first-ever compulsory licence given to a generic drug company

Bytes

COVID-19: Patanjali drugs get go-ahead from govt but key questions unanswered

AYUSH ministry says drugs only for immunity, Patanjali claims patients’ recovery

Many links missing in Patanjali’s claims of COVID-19 drugs

AYUSH ministry halts sales but experts question other government agencies too  

Patent claim on hepatitis C drug questioned in many countries

With hepatitis C killing at least 700,000 people every year, civil society has strengthened efforts to make the drug accessible