June 2013

India is full of newspaper columnists and entire magazines which devote themselves to pontificating on the wellbeing of the underprivileged. Vast think tanks get millions in funding to produce papers on the subject Yet, the best writing on cervical cancer among the women of India — the ones whose parents cannot afford a protective vaccine …

This year’s best writing on cancer among poor women in India … is from Forbes Read More »

According to this article, Tamil Nadu’s low-cost health care model has recently been applauded for reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality between 1980 and 2005.  Before 1980, 44 newborn babies out of every thousand child births died in India. In twenty five years, Tamil Nadu reduced it by 60 per cent, while the national average …

Tamil Nadu receives global recognition for its low-cost health care model Read More »

Swaraj Paul Barooah has written some pieces that are very critical of some of the recent Indian court decisions on pricing of medicines an on intellectual policy. He is no reliable friend of weak Ip protection but this morning on the Spicy IP blog, he uses all of his formidable legal mind to tear apart …

Weakness in US complaints to India over intellectual property safeguards? Read More »

It’s widely held that China’s ability to invest strategically in pharmaceuticals and vaccines will give it an edge over India in both over the long term. Thus far, though, India’s industry has prospered more. A fascinating article in the New Yorker  profiles an economist who would have expected this. The shortest line between two points was, …

What are the keys to economic growth? Chaos, confusion and mistakes Read More »

There is an article on Health Canal (an online Health newswire / Medical Research News wire service provider) that talks about a pilot intervention program to assist women with HIV/AIDS. Multidisciplinary teams of researchers from UCLA and India initiated a new intervention program, in which ‘lay women’ in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh were …

Innovative intervention program improves life for rural women in India living with HIV/AIDS Read More »

In the wake of the Ranbaxy scandals (see this earlier post), multinational pharma is predicting doom for India’s generics industry. This well-written piece by former Canadian politician (and former PhRMA staffer) Chris Ward comes from the latest Pharmaceutical Executive. You would not expect Ward to take a charitable view but he gives a foretaste of …

Multinational pharma goes on the offensive against Indian generics Read More »

A report in yesterday’s New York Times shows a dramatic drop in the prevalence of human papilloma viruses amongst teenage American girls over the past decade. HPV causes cervical cancer and genital warts. Experts ascribe the drop to the use of the HPV vaccine. In fact, the drop is  steeper than predicted because the minority …

Half as much cancer causing virus in US girls as ten years ago; India dithers Read More »

An article appeared in The Hindu on June 16, which talks about the Mental Health Care Bill, 2013. This bill approved by the Union Cabinet, is a rights-based approach to mental health care with citizens getting the right to access mental health care. It seeks to provide access to mental health care and services for …

The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013 Read More »