Published by the Indian express, the article states that Pakistan is set to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine in its national immunisation programme, where as in India there is still a debate on the efficacy of the vaccine.India has recorded half of the world’s childhood death due to this disease. To read more please click here.
Pak takes the lead against pneumonia, India debates Read More »
According to today’s Fierce Pharma, Indonesia is the third middle-income country to take steps to seize the patents of international pharma companies through compulsory licensing. The presidential decree applies initially only to HIV drugs but commentators see this as a toe in the water.
First India, then China, now Indonesia seize intellectual property Read More »
Health Issues India has written about the issue of access to medication before and just last week wrote about the Supreme Court giving the government a two week deadline to finalise policy to bring 348 “essential” drugs under the government’s price control. Another issue that has been in the news recently is generic medicine and
Generic, generic, generic Read More »
After years of debate, the Supreme Court forced government to act by giving a two week deadline before the Court considered imposing rules. The Hindu reports on the rules that will impose weighted average prices on 348 medicines. More important may be the tone of the recent court judgements which appear to be creating some
New medicines price controls Read More »
An issue we have covered before in Health Issues India is the seeming unwillingness of Indian doctors to serve in rural areas. This might seem counter-intuitive as about 72% of the Indian population still lives in rural areas. Still, only 26% of doctors in India reside in rural areas. This anomaly leads to situations where people
Tackling the problem of doctors unwilling to serve Read More »
With the finalisation of 12th Plan outlay, the Health Ministry is aiming to roll out its ambitious project for provision of free medicines to all at public health facilities across the country. Despite a scaled-down outlay of 1.95 per cent of GDP during the 12th Plan, Health Ministry officials say none of its planned schemes will
Soon, free medicines for all at public health facilities Read More »
The Hindu reports that India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board has upheld the decision of the Controller of Patents to issue a compulsory licence for Bayer’s Nexavar. The most interesting part of the proceeding might be Bayer’s contention that Natco (the generic producer) is selling its version in China and Pakistan (the Appellate Board refused to consider
Appellate Board upholds compulsory licence of cancer drug Read More »
R.Prasad’s article in today’s Hindu has a typically restrained tone but the proposals are radical. The National Strategic Plan for TB would restrict sale of new TB medicines to authorised outlets and might only give supplies in return for notification of cases. There is also talk of going out to proactively look for cases.
Radical new proposals on TB in the private sector Read More »
An article published in the Hindu recently stated that a 2012 WHO study ranks India third — behind Myanmar and Bangladesh — among countries that fail to provide health cover to people. A 2011 study reported in The Lancet on ‘Healthcare and equity’ also confirms this: every year, at least 39 million people here fall into poverty
Patients lose out to patents & profits Read More »
A few weeks after President Pranab Mukherjee called for a ‘second freedom struggle’ to eradicate hunger, disease and poverty, healthcare took center stage once again his speech at a conference organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The President called upon multiple stakeholders in the health sector to make universal healthcare a
India’s President calls for making universal healthcare a reality Read More »