After ramping up production to meet the steep demand spike during the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian medical device makers are now struggling with idle capacity. According to industry estimates, around a third of the installed capacity, especially for consumables, disposables, small-ticket electronic items, etc., is lying unutilised. Sample this: India used to produce just 6.24 million pieces of PPE kits per annum before the pandemic, but by June this was ramped up to 233.87 million pieces per annum.
'Antiviral treatment will have no change. Spike protein change may affect the immunity protection.'
With around 2 million Covid vaccine doses likely to get wasted in December, leading hospital chains have now started to give it gratis to citizens. Sohini Das and Ruchika Chitravanshi report.
The institute has bagged 179 pre-placement offers so far, with the highest domestic offer at Rs 64 lakh per annum.
A nasal vaccine, one expert said, is a "fantastic idea" for two reasons -- one, it can potentially create sterile immunity, and two, it is easy to administer and thus scalable.
Around two-thirds or 70 per cent of employers surveyed would either not allow employees, who refuse to get vaccinated to step into the workplace or ask them to quit the organisation. It also showed that 94 per cent employers and 87 per cent employees want people coming in to work to be vaccinated with at least a single dose.
As per Western Union's study on overseas education, 22 per cent students prefer new and unconventional study destinations such as Ireland, Turkey and Spain.
Experts, however, feel that given the intensity of the second wave and the high single dose coverage, India is in a good position to avoid any drastic wave in the near future.
Tamil Nadu plans parallel programme with unique user IDs
Will syringe shortage puncture India's Covid vaccine plans?
Lack of clarity on data-sharing persists, public health experts sceptic about the pilot that was run in six Union territories as benchmark for national roll-out
Canada has emerged as the most preferred country for Indian students abroad.
In September, Bharat Biotech aimed to supply 35 million doses, and take this up to 55 million by October. This is still less than what the Indian government expects from the company.
The sudden spike in cases of fever in India has claimed over 100 lives in five states, including UP, MP, Bihar, Haryana, and West Bengal. In UP, Firozabad and Mathura alone have reported 72 cases.
Pfizer can show the FDA approval to the Indian regulator and present a case that based on whatever data submitted, the US regulator has granted a full marketing nod, says Sohini Das.
The Centre is looking to procure around 1 billion syringes between September and December to support the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
Gennova has also got permission for phase-2 and 3 clinical trials for its lyophilised mRNA vaccine for injection from the subject expert committee advising the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation, reports Sohini Das.
Government institutions and pharma industry are examining if a 'cocktail' approach to making a multi-variant Covid-19 vaccine works against multiple strains of the ever-mutating virus, reports Sohini Das.
The health system is trying to ensure that it isn't caught by surprise -- the way it was last time. So, hectic preparations are on.
This year's share of dream and super-dream job offers has spiked. As a result, the overall annual average salary packages have nearly doubled at some of these college campuses.
