Over 20 drug companies marketing anti-obesity drug sibutramine under a variety of brand names are likely to soon face a ban on selling the medicine.
Indian pharmaceutical companies, which are increasingly choosing to settle patent litigation with global drug majors in the US, would have to be more cautious now.
Pharmaceutical patents are just over a fourth of all patents granted in the country, but domestic drug makers account for almost all post-grant patent opposition filed, official data reveals.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of graduates who want to qualify as patent agents -- the intermediates between patent applicants and the patent office. Over 2,000 persons will appear for the national level examination conducted by the patent office that qualifies graduates to work as patent agents later this month. This is a five-fold increase over the number of applications that had reached the patent office last year.
India's product patent regime for drugs, which is now five years old, is set to enter a phase in which there will be a distinct change in the kind of patents sought as well as patent challenges, say officials and industry experts.
US-based Merck is confident that its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil will help it to secure a position among the country's top five drug companies in the next five years.
The smaller players in the business - combined under the Small Pharmaceutical Industries Confederation - have raised objections to the proposed Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices.
Last week, scientists working with the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) in New Delhi decoded the genome of a 52-year-old man from Jharkhand after nine weeks of study -- a first in the country. The feat has helped India join a select club of countries -- the US, UK, Canada, Korea and China.
Indian medicine accounted for over 50 per cent of all drug seizures in Europe for intellectual property rights violation last year. Industry experts said this indicates the seriousness of the problem. This data was revealed in the recently-released 2009 report of the European Union on the customs enforcement activities of its member states.
The corporate affairs ministry and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) are confident of meeting the April 2011 deadline to shift to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
The government has begun work on expanding the country's National List of Essential Medicines, which was last revised in 2003.
The controversial issue of exclusivity of drug-trial data -- which saw overseas multinational companies and Indian pharma companies taking opposite positions -- is back on the table.
The central government is planning to mandate biometric identification for clinical trial volunteers in the country to bring in global standards and to weed out unethical practices in the industry, which is less than a decade old.
After decades of hunt for fortune abroad, India's pharmaceutical companies now plan to strike gold in their own backyard. Large players from Ranbaxy to Dr Reddy's and Piramal Healthcare are all headed to rural India to boost their revenues.
Ranbaxy has six-month exclusive marketing right to anti-herpes Valtrex.
'It might take 10 years before medicines of decent quality and price reach right down to the last village of India. Ranbaxy, with its India focus, intends to get there in five years.'
Unregistered sources of consignment raise quality questions.
This is in the backdrop of the arrest of R Vasudevan, the seniormost CLB member, on November 24. This has left the board with just two members to hear the pending cases that run into thousands.
Ranbaxy, originally promoted by the Singh family, was acquired by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo late last year.
The IPA complaint turns significant in the backdrop of increasing talk about foreign companies buying into Dr Reddy's, Piramal Healthcare and Aurobindo.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances