Page 5 - Medicines

Indian pharma industry can grow to $450 bn by 2047: EY-OPPI report

The report underlines the need for collaboration and alignment between the industry, academia and government to advance research and innovation capabilities

Medicines for four rare diseases become cheaper due to domestic production

Medicines for four rare diseases have become available at drastically cheaper rates as Indian pharma companies are now producing them reducing the reliance on expensive imported formulations, Union Health Ministry officials said on Friday. The slashing of prices comes as the ministry has prioritised action related to 13 rare diseases along with sickle cell anaemia. Drugs for four of these diseases -Tyrosinemia Type 1, Gaucher's Disease, Wilson's Disease and Dravet-Lennox Gastaut Syndrome - along with sickle cell Anemia have been approved and are being manufactured indigenously. Four more drugs for three diseases - Tablet Sapropterin for Phenylketonuria, tab Sodium Phenyl Butyrate and tablet Carglumic Acid for Hyperammonemia and Capsule Miglustat for Gaucher's disease - are under process for approval and are likely to be available by April 2024, official sources said. With these drugs being manufactured indigenously, the annual cost of Nitisinone capsules, used in the treatment of .

SC cautions Patanjali over making 'false' claims about its medicines in ads

The Supreme Court Tuesday cautioned Patanjali Ayurved, a company co-founded by yoga guru Ramdev and dealing in herbal products, against making "false" and "misleading" claims in advertisements about its medicines as cure of several diseases. "All such false and misleading advertisements of Patanjali Ayurved have to stop immediately. The court will take any such infraction very seriously...," a bench comprising justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Prashant Kumar Mishra orally observed while hearing a plea of the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The top court, on August 23, 2022, had issued notices to the Union health ministry and Ministry of Ayush and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, on the plea of the IMA alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines. During the brief hearing, the bench asked Patanjali Ayurved not to publish misleading claims and advertisements against modern systems of medicine. It said the bench may also consider imposing a fine of Rs

Strides Pharma arm obtains USFDA nod for Levetiracetam oral solution

According to market research firm IQVIA, the Levetiracetam oral solution has a market size of $55 million

Pharma majors turn attention to OTC drugs in post-pandemic wellness shift

Building a healthy OTC brand, however, is not an easy task. OTC brands need time to grow and build a recall value once they have established some credibility

Biocon biologics receives marketing approval by MHRA for YESAFILI in UK

This approval follows the green light granted by the European Commission (EC) for marketing authorisation in the European Union (EU) back in September

India, Netherlands to cooperate on regulations for medical products

India and the Netherlands will cooperate on regulations for medical products and enhance the quality of healthcare services in both countries. At Hague, India and the Netherlands have "signed a memorandum of intent (MoI) to cooperate on medical product regulation and enhance the quality of medical products and healthcare services for both countries". The MoI was signed during a meeting of Bhagwant Khuba, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers with Ernst Kuipers Minister of Health, Welfare and Sports of the Kingdom of Netherlands. An Indian delegation led by Khuba is in the Netherlands to participate in the second World Local Production Forum (WLPF) meeting being held in The Hague from 6 to 8 November 2023. The World Local Production Platform is a platform created at the initiative of WHO with the aim of increasing access to medicines and other health technologies. The Minister also visited the European Medicines Agency (EMA). He met Carla van Rooijen, Director of t

IIT Guwahati discovers modified graphene oxide's potential in medicine

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati have developed cost-effective experiments for modifying graphene oxide that can be used by other academic institutions to train personnel needed for cutting-edge projects in semiconductors, nanoelectronics, healthcare and quantum technologies. A team led by Rajiv K Kar, assistant professor, at the Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology in IIT-Guwahati, have made these important discoveries regarding the use of modified graphene oxide for biomedical applications, a release said on Tuesday. Graphene is an exceptionally strong material and possesses outstanding electrical and thermal conductivity. Its oxidised form, called Graphene Oxide (GO), offers a large surface area and low cytotoxicity, making it suitable for medical applications. GO can be further engineered through defects, doping and functional modifications, which enhance its optical and electrical properties for improved biomedical ...

Rectitude question for a Nobel winner

Science deals with measurements to micro-levels of accuracy and sophisticated statistical methods are employed to tease signals out of noise

Indian envoy to Myanmar proposes setting up JWG for Traditional Medicine

Thein Zaw Linn, Rector, faculty members and students of UTM, Mandalay were informed about Ayush scholarships and Fellowships available in India

Lupin receives tentative approval from US FDA for apalutamide tablets

Lupin develops and commercialises a wide range of branded and generic formulations, biotechnology products, and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in over 100 markets

PM Janaushadhi Kendras-like stores for animal medicines on the cards

The Janaushadhi Kendras are a collaboration between government agencies and private entrepreneurs

Experts not in favour of nicotine replacement therapy as prescription drug

Nicotine replacement therapies are safe and empower individuals to quit smoking, a group of doctors have said while expressing concern over the proposal to reclassify them as prescription drugs. Experts feel the move to reclassify them as prescription drugs will limit their accessibility to those seeking to stop tobacco consumption. The Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) under the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has proposed to place nicotine replacement therapies under Schedule K of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules so that in future they would be available only on the prescription of authorised medical practitioners and not as over-the-counter preparation. Nicotine polacrilex gums, lozenges and transdermal patches are used for nicotine replacement therapies (NRT). NRT offers a 50 per cent higher probability of quitting smoking compared to attempting to quit without it, and it is both safe and readily available without the need for a prescription, experts have .

Nobel Prize 2023 in Medicine awarded to Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Swedish geneticist Svante Paab

Triple jeopardy in health

This is not all. Not only are we not conserving the existing stock of medicines, the drug pipeline for new antibiotics is drying up, or has done so already

Faced with forex crunch, Pakistan looks up to Iran for life-saving drugs

Banking on what Pakistan described as longstanding and time-tested close fraternal relations with Iran, cash-strapped Pakistan is looking forward to Tehran's help to tide over the unprecedented medicine shortage, including that of life-saving drugs. For more than six months now, Pakistan has faced a severe shortage of life-saving drugs amid a crippled healthcare system due to a lack of Forex reserves, which in turn, has hampered the country's capacity to import both the medicines and the raw material used for local drug manufacturing. It was decided at a meeting between Pakistan's Minister for National Health Services (NHS) Dr Nadeem Jan and Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri-Moghaddam here on Tuesday that Pakistan's drug regulatory authority will work out a comprehensive strategy on a fast-track basis with its Iranian counterpart to ensure uninterrupted supply of life-saving drugs. Pakistan's leading daily Dawn reported that the Iranian Ambassador had called on the Pakistani

Cough syrups to painkillers: Bar codes on 11 habit-forming drugs soon

According to the health ministry, this is being done to stop the misuse and illicit trade of these drugs

Our culture of service helping India gain prominence in post-Covid era: Min

India's culture of service is helping it gain prominence in the new world order created in the post-COVID era, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday, citing the supply of medicines and vaccines by the Centre during the pandemic. When international airlines were shut (during COVID outbreak), six to seven planes landed in India daily only to procure medicines. We did not just provide medicines but also made the whole world aware of our culture, Mandaviya said after inaugurating the Amrita Patel Centre of Public Health at Bhaikaka University at Karamsad in Anand district. Had India desired, the minister said, it could have then sold medicines to other countries at a much higher price. But India continued to supply medicines at pre-pandemic price levels, he said. When the world was stockpiling vaccines three to four times their requirement, India made vaccines to meet the domestic need and also supply to more than 100 countries at a lower rate under the Vaccine Maitri

G20 ministers call for resilient, equitable access to affordable medicines

The G20 Health Ministers meeting saw consensus on building more resilient, equitable and inclusive health systems with equitable access to safe, quality-assured and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in low and middle income countries and small island developing states. The outcome document comprises 25 paragraphs, which were unanimously agreed to by all G20 delegations, except for paragraph 22, which pertains to the chair's summary, and was focused on the geopolitical situation in Ukraine. According to the outcome document released after the meet in Gandhinagar on August 19, consensus was built on setting up research and development and manufacturing network for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, along with setting up a platform for making open-source and inter-operable digital solutions readily available. The health ministers also look forward to a successful outcome of the ongoing negotiations in the ...

Roche Pharma India launches customer experience centre in Chennai

Roche Pharma India launched an industry-first customer experience center to spur collaboration with healthcare professionals, researchers and educational institutions to shape the future of healthcare, the company said on Thursday. The center will offer immersive and interactive healthcare content, comprehensive insights into medical science and information about Roche's innovative, life-changing product portfolio and technologies that have redefined healthcare for over 125 years, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Basel-headquartered Roche Group, said. Doctors and other stakeholders will be able to visualise disease pathways, drug-action in the human body, and co-create better solutions leading to better patient outcomes by using the latest 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) digital technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and AI, a release here said. "The Roche Experience Center reflects the company's mission to empower communities with scientific insights