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Anti-rabies vaccine shortages continue

Shortages of the anti-rabies vaccine and other essential medicines continue to plague public hospitals across the country, with states turning to one another for assistance. So far, the onus for supply has been on Tamil Nadu. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka have also requested for supplies of essential medicines including the anti-rabies vaccine from the …

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Government takes action against rabies vaccine shortage

2019 had barely begun before reports of an American woman who died of rabies after returning from India hit headlines. She was infected in Rishikesh, when a puppy bit her outside her hotel. The incident served to remind us that rabies continues to be a public health scourge in India, which accounts for more than …

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Oxytocin: Doctors challenge Centre in Supreme Court

The fight over the government’s controversial ‘Oxytocin ban’ has escalated even further and will now be fought in the Supreme Court. . The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has joined the fight against the Centre’s efforts to have Oxytocin’s production and sale severely curtailed by moving the apex court. The new policy has been proposed since …

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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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Saridon gets ban reprieve from Supreme Court

A ban on painkiller Saridon has been lifted by the Supreme Court. The headache relief medicine  was one of the 343 fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs banned in a notification by the Centre last year. FDCs are pharmaceutical products which contain two or more active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Safety concerns drove the Centre’s decision to …

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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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Oxytocin ban: High court seeks answers from the Centre

Will the government take a u-turn on its decision to revoke ban on hormone drug oxytocin or will the private companies be allowed to produce the life saving drug? The Delhi High Court is seeking answers from the Centre over legal challenges filed against its controversial ban on the hormone drug oxytocin. The Centre seems …

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Carbetocin: A new weapon in the fight against maternal mortality?

India is a safer country to be a mother than it was twenty years ago. Could a new version of the drug carbetocin make it even safer? In 1990, 556 Indian mothers lost their lives for every one lakh (100,000) live births. 2016 saw this figure drop by 77 percent to 130 deaths for every …

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A TB-free India by 2025 – or a drug resistance epidemic?

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to rid India of tuberculosis (TB) by 2025. This is an ambitious deadline five years in front of the global elimination deadline. Can this goal be achieved or is the new deadline simply political point scoring? The state of TB in India India has a bad track record in …

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