Even as the debate over safety and essentiality of genetically modified foods continues, Indian research institutes are trying to genetically modify some high-value medicinal herbs that are an integral part of ayurvedic medicine, a recent report of pro-environment group Greenpeace has said.
The US Congressional committee, which is inquiring into the country's Food and Drug Administration's handling of drug-marketing approvals of India's leading drug-maker Ranbaxy, has extended its probe into similar permissions given to Iceland's Actavis.
In a move aimed at encouraging the growth of innovation-driven industries, the Ministry of Science and Technology has proposed to set up special innovation zones that will offer a host of fiscal incentives for research and development companies in India.
The World Health Organization has given five more months to the Drugs Controller General of India to upgrade its performance to international standards. The extension of the current deadline of October-end came after a visiting WHO team found the modernisation programmes of the Indian drug regulator on track.
Sun generates 41 per cent of its annual revenues from the US market, a record of sorts among Indian drug firms. The company is bullish on its US prospects and expects 25 per cent growth in the country this year, higher than the 18-20 per cent growth projection it has given for other markets including India. The US is the world's largest market for medicines and accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the $780 billion global medicine sales.
The first petition alleges that Cipla Ltd, India's second largest pharmaceutical company, violated Roche's patent by launching a generic version of Valcyte. The second petition says Cipla violated the Swiss drug maker's trademark by launching the product in a phonetically similar name, 'Valcept'.
The group's testing lab chain SRL Ranbaxy has been renamed as Religare Super Laboratories. RanAir, its charter aviation company will be known as Religare Voyages. About 15 group companies, including joint ventures like Religare Macquarie Private Wealth, Religare Aegon and Vistaar Religare have come under the umbrella brand Religare.
Companies like Shanta Biotech, Panacea Biotec and Serum Institute of India are among the leading vaccine makers which have not been able to file any fresh application to the WHO due to this temporary de-recognition of the country's drug regulatory system. The WHO pre-qualification is essential for companies to supply vaccines to national immunisation programmes funded by the WHO or UNICEF outside the country.
Hospitals and medical research organisations that conduct clinical trials on humans may soon face surprise inspections from the regulatory authorities. The hospitals, the sponsor pharma companies and the institutional ethics committees that oversee these trials will all come under the regulator's scanner.
Data on clinical trials of genetically-modified brinjal have been made public by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the environment ministry.
The WHO feels that the practice is not only against international ethics, but also increases the risk of wrong medication. INNs are names that help to identify the chemical composition of a pharmaceutical substance without having to use long and unwieldy chemical names.
Several Indian states including Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are offering their hospitals to the private sector to manage. This has elicited immediate positive reactions from private sector hospital chains - among them Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals and Wockhardt Hospitals.
Firm reaches out-of-court agreement on 5 of 19 patent challenges in the US.
While the government expects the new urea policy to bring more investment, the fertiliser industry is less than enthused. New capacities to make urea, industry representatives say, will come up only if adequate fuel and timely payment of subsidy dues is ensured.
Medicine prices in India are set to go up by 1-2 per cent as the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority has decided to permit companies to factor in the rising packaging and processing costs into the retail price. The panel will notify the revised three costs -- for conversion, packaging and packing material -- shortly. The norms were finalised last week after a six-month-long analysis of the market.
With China expected to reopen several hundred bulk drug units after the Olympics, prices of some key bulk drugs, including penicillin and paracetamol, have crashed in the Indian market.
The recent pullout by ICICI Venture and Citigroup Venture from a three-year-old drug discovery partnership with Dr Reddy's Laboratories points to angel investors' growing aversion to risk in pharma and biotech firms, say experts.
Indian fertiliser companies are planning to invest around $5 billion (Rs 21,000 crore -- Rs 210 billion) in overseas joint ventures over the next three years. These companies are in negotiations for 19 such ventures, said government officials. These joint ventures are aimed at sourcing nitrogenous, phosphatic fertilisers and other raw materials.
Move is the first in a series of steps to help pharma industry.
Two United States senators have asked the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to provide details of market approvals given to all medicines sold by India's largest drug-maker Ranbaxy in that country.
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