Malvinder, who has made his family richer by Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion), was brought up in relative austerity. While his cousins zipped around the town in fancy cars, he would travel to college in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses.
The medicines include tuberculosis drug moxifloxacin, antipsychotic olanzapine and valgancicloivir, a medicine often needed for HIV/AIDS patients. The groups allege that none of these drugs qualified the criteria specified under the Indian Patents Act and were given patent protection because the patent examiners overlooked the legal safeguards meant to avoid grant of patents to known substances or their mere improvements.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has revised prices of 440 medicines. Around 300 medicines have seen price cuts, while the others have seen a hike, sources said. The extent of the revisions is not known as yet.
The domestic drug industry is concerned over ongoing World Health Organisation negotiations that aim to bring non-health issues, having no direct implications on the safety of a drug, within the ambit of the definition of "counterfeit medicine".
Jet Airways is all set to spread its wings to Beijing, Milan and Paris within a year. The airline currently flies to London it is the market leader on this route with a robust share of 33 per cent and Brussels, which is also its second hub after Mumbai. Jet will be operating flights to Dubai from New Delhi and Mumbai. Taking on Air India's other strategic market, Goyal also announced the date for the launch of the airline's Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight.
In a move to focus on its core FMCG strength, the Burman family, promoters of Dabur India, last week announced their exit from the pharma business.
A government committee is looking at going beyond mere economic considerations and recommend an essentiality-linked pricing structure, it is learnt.
A group of ministers (GoM) headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is scheduled to meet on April 30 to finalise its recommendations for a policy that would attempt to balance the interests of the common man and the industry. The GoM is also expected to give recommendations on the regulation of trade margins on all medicines, public procurement of drugs, price negotiation of patented drugs and medical devices, in addition to the legislation of new Acts.
Multinational firms, which import country-specific packs of medicines from their parent companies.The reason is that the medicines reaching Indian arms of multinational pharma majors now are the consignments for which orders were placed during December 2007, two months before the government cut CVD from 16 per cent to 8 per cent (on February 29). overseas, say they will not be able to cut prices of medicines till June.
In a move likely to influence future drug price regulation in the country, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has started a process to understand how other countries carry out this function.The authority has already studied the relevant regulatory systems in at least eight major countries. It has also finalised a round-table meeting on April 11 in New Delhi to sensitise stakeholders on the need to have an international outlook.
Novartis India is up in arms against a two-month old decision of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to reduce the price of its flagship brand Voveran on public interest grounds. The annual sales of Voveran, the brand name for pain reliever medicine diclofenac, exceed Rs 100 crore and account for one-fourth of the company's total sales turnover. The company has filed a review petition with the chemicals and fertilisers ministry against the authority's decision.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nodal department that handles intellectual property rights (IPR) related matters under the commerce ministry, is launching an ambitious Rs 300-crore (Rs 3 billion) project to sensitise all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, scientists, companies, ministries and the general public on IPR issues.
Sixth Pay Commission has urged the government that all Indian Telecom Service (Group A) officers be absorbed in the public sector telecom service providers, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd & Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd, or sent to the surplus pool. It has also suggested winding up of the Telecom Commission saying BSNL and MTNL now provide extensive services along with several private sector operators. The report states there is no need to retain the 2400 cadre strong-ITS (Group A).
Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (Mahyco), the seed partner of multinational agro-biotech major Monsanto Corporation, has moved the Delhi High Court against a Central Information Commission order seeking details of the safety test data generated during clinical trials of its genetically modified (GM) brinjal, the first GM edible crop to be introduced in India.
358 of 413 drug patent applications for the disease in India are from top multinationals. An analysis of pharma patent applications pending with the patent office by the group, which did not wish to be identified, has put the number of cancer drug patent applications at 413. Of these, 358 came from top multinationals like Novartis, Aventis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Boehringer, Roche and Abbot.
Last month, Barun K Gorain, a non-resident Indian with Canadian company Barrick Gold Corporation came to Delhi with a $10-million proposal for suggesting a viable method to recover silver from Barrick's gold mines in Argentina.
Till some months ago, when several doctors led by Naresh Trehan left the hospital, the same area used to resemble a railway station -- such was the rush. It was a regular feature for patients to wait a couple of hours before the appointment with the doctors came through. Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director of Fortis Healthcare which acquired the hospital from Escorts Ltd for Rs 585 crore (Rs 5.85 billion) in 2005, insists this only shows the efficiency of the doctors.
The tax holiday awarded by the Union Budget to healthcare and IT sectors has been greeted with enthusiasm. Major hospital chains had already announced plans to expand in tier 2 cities. The tax holiday has proved to be an added incentive. India needs 3.1 million new hospital beds in the next 10 years. The tax-holiday benefits are available for all new hospital projects except the ones coming up in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore & Ahmedabad.
Even as India is fast turning into the diabetes capital of the world, multinational drug companies are busy patenting new-generation diabetes medicines for exclusive marketing rights in the country.
Punjab is opposing Centre's area-based tax exemption policy while the underdeveloped states are lauding it as a "well deserved" package.
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