Major ad agencies face a rise in attrition rate, as top officials change jobs at the beginning of the year.
The price regulatory pharma body has set limits to the extent pharma companies can increase the price of medicines in a year.
Karmayog, a leading NGO which recently carried out a CSR rating of top 500 Indian companies, says that only two drug companies - Dr Reddy's and Lupin - have done work on this front. While the two firms scored three out of five, 30 other drug firms failed to perform satisfactorily. Nine of the companies, including leading ones such as Nicholas Piramal, Panacea and Glenmark did not score at all.
Rathod, an IP professional attached to a global generic pharmaceutical company, draws hundreds of readers from across the IP space to his genericpharmaceuticals.blogspot.com.
Even as a lack of clarity in regulations is preventing Indian medical device manufacturers from making their presence felt in the $2 billion domestic medical equipment market, foreign players, mostly from the United States, are increasingly finding the country a preferred destination.
Days after medical representatives said their employers were flouting the government's drug-pricing norms, the pharmaceutical industry has decided to clip their wings. These companies want them to be no longer recognised as "workmen," a classification that gives them the right to form trade unions.
In an attempt to tap the growing market for lifestyle products, the Videocon group plans to come out with laptop computers, mobile phones and gaming solutions by the last quarter of 2008.
In another setback to Big Pharma, US drug major Eli Lilly's blockbuster erectile dysfunction drug Cialis (generic name:Tadalafil) has failed to qualify for a product patent in India after the basic constituent of the medicine was found to be a known substance, developed and patented by Indian scientists 32 years ago.
With 1,610 cases of detention of food and medicine consignments at various US ports of entry during the last 11 months, the products of Indian origin received the second largest number of import refusal reports (IRRs).
The Indian advertising expenditure is doubling every four years primarily dominated by spends on television and print campaigns.
Pharma makers 'making a mockery' of price control, they say.
Premium British ale brands such as Abbot Ale, Fuller's London Pride, Broughton, St. Peter's, Spitfire and Hobgoblin Ale are expected to make their entry into the hotels soon.
Continuous investment in capacity expansion, slow pick-up of medical tourism, increasing competition among corporate healthcare entities and lack of health insurance are thus driving away small players and attracting deep-pocketed corporate entities that can afford to sustain on a long-term basis.
Andhra Pradesh is to house the country's first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The first phase of the project, meant to house about 60 SME pharmaceutical manufacturing units in 200 acres of land is to be ready by mid-2008.
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which owns the Amul brand, is all set to introduce sugar-free chocolates across the country, targeted at diabetics. This comes soon after the company had launched sugar-free ice-cream. India has become the diabetes capital of the world with almost 35 million people suffering from the disorder. And their population will continue to grow at a fast pace, say experts, because of Indian dietary habits and a sedentary lifestyle.
Vijay Mallya's United Breweries has held a vice-like grip over the Indian beer market with the Kingfisher, Kalyani and Sandpiper brands. With 137 million cases (12 bottles each), it has a 45 per cent market share. But now multinationals are closing in on UB.
Firms use imported pulp as Indian oranges have lower juice content. The Indian orange is yet to catch the fancy of beverage companies, foreign as well as Indian. Dabur, the leader in orange-based packaged juices with a 54 per cent market share, sources orange concentrate from North and South America for its 'Real' brand.
Sixty firms' business worth Rs 1,000 crore at stake.
The company recorded a net profit of Rs 426.9 crore (Rs 4.26 billion) in the first nine months against Rs 366.5 crore (Rs 3.66 billion) for the same period in 2006. With another quarter to go, the company expects profits close to Rs 739.3 crore (Rs 7.39 billion).
Of the top-10 global biotech companies, the biggest two -- Amgen and Biogen -- have already set up wholly owned subsidiaries in the country.