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World TB Day: Will India show leadership in the fight against TB?

“It was something that I had never expected, I was really shocked,” Nandita Venkatesan said as she recalled finding out she had become re-infected with tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. It was six years after she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2007, some months before her eighteenth birthday. In a candid conversation profiled in …

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How Mumbai fares in the fight against TB

Drug resistance is one of the most pressing public health challenges facing India, especially when it comes to tuberculosis (TB). As the country grapples with one of the largest TB burdens in the world, rising cases of drug resistance presents an alarming trend. TB cases which become resistant to the most effective front-line drugs are …

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Pharma fears over Jan Aushadhi

The Centre’s flagship access to medicines scheme may be a boon for patients. However, it is also stoking fears among Indian pharma. Forecasts estimate that drugmakers could see twenty percent of their sales disrupted by the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pari Yojana Kendra (PMBJPK), a health ministry campaign to make medicines more affordable for …

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Ayushman Bharat: Will it help to make India healthy?

One of the most significant achievements of the Narendra Modi’s government has been the mega healthcare reform ushered in with the launch of flagship healthcare scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana – better known as Ayushman Bharat, or ‘Modicare’. The ambitious scheme – often touted as the world’s biggest healthcare scheme – aims to provide …

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Jan Aushadhi Diwas: What the Prime Minister said

Jan Aushadhi Diwas celebrations heralded the Centre’s scheme to expand access to medicines – and included a high-profile speech from Prime Minister Modi, in which he extolled the benefits of the initiative. Beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) include both the poor and middle-class, the Prime Minister claimed during a video conference …

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Jan Aushadhi Diwas: Centre expands plans for access to medicines

The Centre will add 2,500 Jan Aushadhi stores to its existing stock by 2020 – with the eventual aim of one store for every block. Jan Aushadhi stores are special kendras (centres) opened under the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Pari Yojana Kendra (PMBJPK) initiative, which seeks to expand access to medicines. These  centres …

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Generic medicines: Centre pushes for cheaper drugs

In a bid to make generic medicines more eye-catching, the Central government is planning to introduce an innovative marketing strategy to increase their brand awareness among consumers. New Union Health Ministry plans would colour-code generic medicines to distinguish them from their more costly brand-name counterparts. This is in a bid to encourage consumers to make …

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Ayushman Bharat gets Budget boon – but what about the rest of health?

Ayushman Bharat has reached ten lakh patients since its rollout last year in September, the Centre has announced in the 2019 Budget. The milestone was announced by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal as he presented the 2019-20 Budget to Lok Sabha MPs on January 31st. He added that efforts are being made to expand access …

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High Court walks back on e-pharmacy sales

A ban on online medicines sales has been stayed by the Madras High Court until it makes a final decision on the matter. This means consumers can still buy medicines online – at least for now. E-pharmacy sales were subject to a blanket ban by the Court on Monday, December 17th. The Court’s ruling followed …

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Centre under pressure to ban unsafe drugs

The Centre is under pressure to ban drugs that are still being sold in India despite being flagged a decade ago as being potentially unsafe. The Delhi High Court has given the Centre until January 4th to respond to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Dinesh Thakur in October. Thakur is a public health …

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