Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said 642 prosecutions were launched for manufacturing, sale and distribution of spurious/adulterated drugs, while 262 persons were arrested.
As the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is set to crack down on companies to ensure compliance with printing QR codes on top-selling brands to curb counterfeiting, top pharma companies say they welcome the regulator's mandate and that they are on track. They also view it as a positive step to ensure patient safety. Sheetal Arora, CEO of Mankind Pharmaceuticals, which has already adopted QR codes in 20 of their products, stated: "We strongly advocate for mandatory implementation of barcodes and QR codes on medicines as this initiative will not only protect patients but also strengthen the integrity of our healthcare system by reducing circulation of counterfeit drugs."
The Madhya Pradesh government will cover the full cost of treatment for children suffering from kidney infections after consuming a contaminated cough syrup in Chhindwara and Betul districts. This decision follows the deaths of fourteen children in Chhindwara due to suspected renal failure linked to the 'toxic' Coldrif cough syrup.
The joint inspections is to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of drugs available in the country
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has defended a doctor arrested in connection with cough syrup deaths in Madhya Pradesh, attributing the incident to failures in the drugs regulatory system.
The Union Budget for 2026-27, presented by Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday, which was a first, had an excellent domestic macro backdrop. According to the first advance estimates, gross domestic product (GDP) in constant prices is projected to grow 7.4 per cent in the current financial year, against 6.5 per cent in 2024-25.
US President Donald Trump's plan to sign an executive order to cut prescription drug prices by 30-80 per cent could lead to a global price adjustment with pharma firms pushing lower-cost countries like India to raise prices, according to the economic think tank GTRI. The US move could push prices in lower-cost countries like India as manufacturers would seek to recover losses and R&D costs from these nations.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday strongly rebutted allegations by Leader of Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey over 'deaths' allegedly due to the consumption of fake medicines and codeine syrup, asserting in the Assembly that no such case has come to the notice of the state government so far.
An alleged synthetic narcotics producer, Kubbawala Mustafa, wanted on an Interpol Red Notice, was deported to India from the UAE in an operation coordinated by the CBI and Mumbai police.
S Ranganathan, the owner of the Tamil Nadu-based pharmaceuticals company that manufactured the Coldrif cough syrup linked to 20 children's deaths, has been arrested.
Emcure Pharmaceuticals on Monday said it saw Poviztra, its newly launched semaglutide brand, as a "long-term" opportunity in India's fast-evolving obesity and cardiometabolic therapy market, even as price competition in the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) segment intensified.
The UK government has announced a new road safety strategy, including 'Dev's Law' named after an Indian-origin boy killed in a road accident, to reduce deaths and serious injuries on British roads.
Buoyant domestic sales are expected to lift revenues for pharma companies by 8-11 per cent in Q3FY26, even as declining generic Revlimid (cancer drug) sales in the US remain a key drag. Most brokerages forecast a modest 2-4 per cent growth in profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter. Hospitals and diagnostics companies, meanwhile, are likely to post much stronger numbers, with revenues seen growing 20-22 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y).
The government has been stringent with pricing changes. Prices of 651 essential medicines came down from April 1, 2023 by 6.73 per cent with the government capping ceiling prices of these drugs.
The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday appealed to the people to immediately stop the sale or use of a specific batch of Coldrif syrup, following child deaths in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan allegedly linked to the medicine.
The toll in the case reached nine in Madhya Pradesh while media reports said of two infants died in Rajasthan.
Madhya Pradesh minister Narendra Shivaji Patel blames the Tamil Nadu government for the deaths of 20 children due to contaminated cough syrup, citing negligence in inspecting medicines. The Tamil Nadu government has banned the sale of the syrup and ordered its removal from the market. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh criticizes the food and drug department's administration.
Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) on Friday said US President Donald Trump's move to impose 100 per cent import tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs from October 1 will impact only patented and branded products, not generic medicines.
The rationalisation of goods and services tax (GST), announced on Wednesday, directly lowers the cost of everyday medical consumables, and also high-end therapies in oncology and rare diseases, helping reduce out-of-pocket patient expenditure and better adherence to medication.
India is seeking either an exemption or a longer timeline on the pharmaceutical tariffs, expected to kick in by July 31.
Any industrial policy is only as good as how it is applied and the other reforms that support it. This was as true 40 years ago as it is now, points out Debashis Basu.
The death toll from contaminated cough syrup in Madhya Pradesh has risen to 22, with two more children succumbing to kidney infections. An investigation is underway, and arrests have been made.
An extensive drug trafficking network operating throughout north India, with a particular focus on Shimla, has been busted following the arrest of two individuals - one from Kolkata and one from Delhi. The syndicate used online platforms for booking drugs, misusing innocent people's accounts and delivering drugs through couriers. Police have frozen 21 accounts associated with the network and arrested 16 individuals, including the kingpin, Sandeep Shah.
After two years of strong gains, smallcap stocks fell sharply in 2025, but the correction may be setting up opportunities for long-term investors.
FDC drugs are those which contain a combination of two or more active pharmaceutical ingredients in a fixed ratio and are also referred to as 'cocktail' drugs.
Health ministry advisory urges rational use of cough syrups in children after 11 deaths in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
A government hospital in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, is investigating a complaint about worms allegedly found in a bottle of Azithromycin antibiotic medicine given to a child. The entire stock has been sealed and sent for testing following the complaint.
Rathod said the Maharashtra government had initiated an inquiry against 84 out of 108 manufacturers of cough syrups in the state.
This innovation works by stimulating our natural organs so that it can produce and maintain the insulin balance.
Following deaths allegedly linked to contaminated cough syrup, Pune FDA initiates action against pharmacies selling without prescriptions and prohibits stock from a Gujarat-based firm.
'Anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, and other drugs suspected to be spurious were seized from the raid carried out at the firm.'
Delhi-based pharma major Mankind Pharma on Wednesday announced a collaboration with OpenAI to institutionalise artificial intelligence (AI) across its value chain, making it one of the first few Indian pharmaceutical companies to fully integrate advanced AI into its core operations.
Amid controversy over USPresident Donald Trump's comments linking the use of Tylenol and other related paracetamol products by pregnant women to autism in children, experts and industry executives say that since India's export of the drug to the US is less, it will hardly affect the country's pharma exports to America.
The current crisis has forced the government to announce measures to ensure that India becomes self-sustaining for any kind of bulk drug. The government says India will not depend on any other country for vital key ingredients for drugs within six years, reports Sheela Bhatt.
The drug network was busted based on an intelligence input received by the Crime Branch, he said, adding that three persons were arrested and a case has been registered by the DRI.
The US Food and Drug Administration's (USFDA)'s new draft guidelines aimed at speeding up and reducing the cost of developing biosimilars - lower-priced, near-replicas of complex biologic medicines - could significantly benefit Indian biotech companies.
The Union health ministry on Friday said license has been given to five more manufacturers for production of Amphotericin-B, used in the treatment of black fungus, and they will start producing 1,11,000 vials of the drug per month from July.
If pharmaceutical exports from India to the US come under a 25 per cent tariff bracket, the impact on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) could be around 5 per cent, felt analysts. This is after assuming that about 75 per cent of the tariff would be passed on.
President Trump announces 100% tariffs on movies made outside the US, potentially impacting the Indian film industry. The move follows similar tariffs on pharmaceutical products.
Tamil Nadu government alerted Madhya Pradesh and the Union Health Ministry about the presence of a toxic substance in Coldrif cough syrup, averting a major tragedy, according to state Health Minister Ma Subramanian.
