The studies, independently initiated by international non-governmental-organization PATH and Indian Council of Medical Research for GSK and Merck vaccines respectively, were called off early this year after six deaths were reported among the girls who were administered these vaccines in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Several international insurance firms that operate in India through joint ventures exercise control over them, despite having only a 26 per cent stake. This is the maximum permissible foreign investment.
Says sector has grievance redress mechanism.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, which regulates the prices of medicines, has identified around 70 anti-cancer drugs, including anti-breast cancer medication Letrozole and anti-blood cancer drug Imatinib, for detailed price analysis.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has sought the opinion of various stakeholder departments on the need for further amendments to the patent law to introduce some of the controversial provisions that were kept out during the previous amendment to the Indian Patent Act five years ago.
The Planning Commission has decided that approvals for all social sector projects undertaken by various non-government organisations, normally outside the purview of CAG, will come with the rider that they will be subject to audit, if required.
The Union ministry of chemicals and fertilisers has initiated a move to bring all essential medicines sold in the country under a price cap.
The Competition Commission of India, the country's fair trade watchdog, which turned functional less than a year ago, busy these days.
Piramal Healthcare is planning a string of acquisitions in the biotech space in the US, Europe and Canada in the next two to three years.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India will soon become the second company to get manufacturing approval for a vaccine for the H1N1 virus (swine flu) . The company's intra-nasal swine flu vaccine is expected to get regulatory clearance by the month-end, health ministry officials said.
An increase in the number of outsourcing deals between domestic drug companies and pharmaceutical multinationals has triggered huge capacity expansion programmes in the drug manufacturing sector.
Fortis Healthcare may avoid a hurried response to counter Malaysian investment fund Khazanah's bid to acquire management control over Asia's largest health care chain Parkway Holdings from Fortis which holds the largest number of shares in Parkway.
The Indian arm of Swiss pharmaceutical major Novartis AG is set to become the newest entrant in the Ayurvedic business.
The Delhi High Court has quashed a demand of approximately Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) raised by the central government against Ranbaxy Laboratories.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has recommended strict penal action, including imprisonment, for auditors who are found associated with serious accounting frauds.
US-based Purdue Pharma has filed a patent infringement suit against India's largest drug company, Ranbaxy, after the latter's wholly-owned US subsidiary, Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc, applied for marketing approval of a low-cost version of Purdue's pain relieving medicine, Oxycodone.
US watchdog lauds India's IPR efforts, but picks holes in legal framework.
Cipla, the country's leading drug maker, has sent a legal notice to George Washington University of the United States on a recent symposium it had organised in India.
Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, the country's biggest drug maker by revenues, has announced aggressive growth plans for the domestic market. It has increased its sales teams in specific areas like cardiovascular, diabetics and dermatology and plans to introduce over 100 new products by the year-end.
Fortune seekers in the Indian pharmaceutical space will find this irresistible. In less than 24 months, 26 blockbuster medicines, worth over $69 billion (about Rs 3,10,000 crore) -- or thrice the size of the domestic industry -- are going off-patent in the world's largest drug market, the United States.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances