More lucrative routinely prescribed drugs are at higher risk of failing quality standards
The drugs and pharmaceutical industry on Friday welcomed the government move to provide death penalty for those involved in manufacturing, selling and dealing with fake drugs.
Normal life was on Monday disrupted in Kashmir Valley due to a strike called by the Medical Employees Joint Action Forum against the alleged failure of the government to bring to book those involved in the spurious drug scam.
The recommendation is being forwarded to the Union government.
A notification of the revised Schedule M rules by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has elicited mixed responses from the pharma sector and industry observers. While the industry has welcomed the revision of rules, several analysts said that implementation and compliance can become a challenge for smaller pharmaceutical companies. The Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules specifies the good manufacturing practices (GMPs), which aim to ensure quality of drugs made in the country.
The percentage of non-standard quality drugs in the state has been in the range of 2-2.5% as compared to an all-India average of 5-6%
Commercial launch and supply to major government and private hospitals is expected in mid-June.
An International Policy Network report in 2010 found that seven per cent of drugs bought from wholesale traders were substandard, and 3.6 per cent of the drugs from traders contained no active ingredient whatsoever.
So far, the maximum 83 deaths have taken place in Tarn Taran district, followed by 14 in Batala and 13 in Amritsar. The tragedy has been unfolding since Wednesday evening in the three districts.
The company claimed that its product is "three times better than remdesivir and that 'AAYUDH Advance starts where vaccines stop'."
'Justice may or may not happen, but who are those people who did this to her?' 'If the hospital authorities had helped us that day, or the police, then the real culprits would have been caught.' 'Getting justice for my daughter is my goal now and I want the CM to remember that.'
Around 12 per cent of the drugs sold in the open market across the country are "sub-standard" and over 0.5 per cent are "spurious," a senior official of Union health ministry said in Lucknow.
About 140 people out of 193 who were admitted to various government medical facilities after they consumed the spurious liquor on Tuesday night were currently stable, Kallakurichi district collector M S Prasanth said.
In an exclusive interview with PTI video, the minister also said an extensive risk-based analysis is done continuously to ensure the production of quality medicines in the country, and the government and regulators are always alert to ensure that no one dies due to spurious medicines.
Of the 137,000 drug government tested 345 turned out to be fake.
"The licence for the drug was obtained on the basis of the traditional knowledge and experience related to the medicinal virtues of Ashwagandha, Giloy and Tulsi," Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala said.
The two directors of the company named in the FIR, however, still remain at large.
Pharma firms will have to affix barcodes on consignments of all tertiary level packaging, such as cartons, following a government order.
The manufacturing licence of Noida-based pharmaceutical firm Marion Biotech has been cancelled by the Uttar Pradesh authorities, according to officials.
Whistle-blower Dinesh Thakur tells briefing on US Capitol Hill: 'One in five medicines manufactured and distributed in India are spurious.' Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
Maya Chemtech India Pvt Ltd supplied propylene glycol used in Marion Biotech's cough syrups that were found to be "not of standard quality", according to the regulator.
The petitioner's lawyer interjected the rules are being framed for the last 5-6 years but nothing concrete has been done yet.
Three employees of a Noida-based pharmaceutical firm, whose cough syrup is alleged to have led to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan last year, were arrested on charges of manufacturing and sale of adulterated drugs, officials said.
A single-member commission under retired judge Anita Jha was constituted on Firday to probe the botched sterilisation surgeries at Bilaspur's government-run medical camps, which have so far claimed lives of 13 young women and left nearly 138 ill, and asked to submit its report within three months.
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking an independent probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into a recent hooch tragedy in Bihar, in which at least 30 people have lost their lives.
Ranbaxy Laboratories on Thursday said it will co-operate fully with any regulator from anywhere in the world wanting to investigate its manufacturing practices.
Members of JD-U, RJD and Congress which have given enough hint of fighting together against BJP in the coming state assembly election next year, jointly rushed into the well of both the Houses demanding action against Dhankhar and his "close friend" Sushil Kumar Modi.
While Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh warned the yoga guru that the state government won't allow the sale of 'spurious' medicines, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma also said that the state government will not allow the sale of Patanjali's Ayurvedic formulation.
Laws governing compensation in case of adverse side effects for Covaxin and Covishield may differ in accordance with the kind of approvals given, say legal experts.
The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday told the state governments to crack down on people hoarding and black-marketing swine flu drug Oseltamivir and masks used as protection against the disease, warning that their "shortage will not be tolerated."
Mumbai police have arrested four persons for allegedly duping a housing society in suburban Kandivali by organising a COVID-19 vaccination camp fraudulently in the name of a private hospital, an official said on Friday.
While the top players of the over Rs 85,000 crore (Rs 850 billion) pharmaceutical business are up in arms over what they call rampant spread of counterfeit drugs (allegedly 20 to 25 per cent of total pharma sales) in the country, enforcement agencies and some pharma associations say the situation is not that alarming.
Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi "Saheb" during a discussion on the government's resolution on good works in the Delhi assembly's special session, Kejriwal said the nation is not with him in his "theatrics".
The petition was dismissed by a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice A K Mathur. The Madhya Pradesh high court had earlier upheld a city court's decision to dismiss the state government's plea against the pharmaceutical firm. The petition filed in the apex court through counsel C D Singh stated that the High Court had failed to appreciate that the presence of foreign element in the medicine was a clear breach of provisions of the Durgs & Cosmetic Rules 1945.
1mg has made buying medicines easy and it aims to do more in online health care.
'Any person who wants to enter this service should have a single object of serving the public irrespective of hindrances.'
In order to stop the production and sale of illicit liquor, Maharashtra government is considering a proposal to amend the existing law.
Kerala Congress President V M Sudheeran on why the state needs to get sober.
Shane Warne's tell-all autobiography is every bit as controversial and engrossing as his cricketing career, notes Dhruv Munjal.
