The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
An international Deloitte report, commissioned by British American Tobacco, reveals that increasing the size of health warnings on packs and introducing graphic warnings has not directly reduced tobacco consumption – and calls into question whether plain packaging will achieve government health objectives. http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__3mnfen.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO8GHFEN/$FILE/medMD8GHFFW.pdf?openelement
WHY would a company with a turnover of Rs 9,712 crore and profits of Rs 933 crore want a research loan of less than Rs 10 crore from the government? Ask the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which has become venture capitalist to well-heeled industry. In a novel scheme that turns …
The Department of Biotechnology is playing venture capitalist to private companies to push agri research. Why would a company with a turnover of Rs 9,712 crore and profits of Rs 933 crore want a research loan of less than Rs 10 crore from the government? Ask the Department of Biotechnology …
In David and Goliath stand-offs public sympathy—and cheering—is always reserved for the heroic small man who takes on the big bad guy. The David usually represents valour in the face of heavy odds. That is how the Indian pharmaceuticals industry projected itself when it began producing generics medicine at a …
The information in patent documents and applications can play an important role in improving access to medicines, said experts at a symposium on “Access to Medicines, Patent Information and Freedom to Operate” in Geneva last month.
With the Cancun conference having achieved a major success in bringing the troubled climate negotiations back on track, four major developing economies
he sixth BASIC Feb. 27: The sixth BASIC ministerial meet on climate change saw consensus on the need to develop a new political strategy to ensure nations agree to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol in order to achieve a global peaking of emissions. The Kyoto Protocol remains
Most readers might find it difficult to credit what follows. This is a story of how bilateral and multilateral investment treaties are being used to satisfy corporate greed, how large corporations, even those in the unsavoury business of selling cigarettes, can sue countries for passing public health laws intended to …
After months of prevarication, the European Union has stated publicly that the free trade agreement (FTA) it signs with India will include provisions for data exclusivity because “it is extremely important for research and innovation’’. That’s what European Union ambassador Daniele Smadja told journalists in Delhi on January 21. Smadja’s …
This is set to become a landmark case for the Indian pharmaceutical industry—and for patients. When Natco Pharma of Hyderabad wrote to Pfizer, the world’s largest drugs manufacturer, that it wanted a voluntary licence (VL) to make a low-cost version of its antiretroviral drug maraviroc, it was setting the stage …
In the season of scandals and wrongdoing, all other frauds have been overshadowed by the gargantuan 2G swindle because it has been accompanied by murky disclosures of how businessmen and politicians subverted every pillar of our democracy. Naturally, everything else pales in comparison. But there are more scary skeletons in …
Nearly 2 billion people (a third of the world's population) lack access to essential medicines. In low-income and middle-income countries, drugs account for 20
Bal Krishan Keayla, a key figure in the National Working Group on Patent Law and an indefatigable campaigner for two decades against the GATT/WTO agreement on intellectual property, died on 27 November. A colleague in the working group reminisces.
It is now final. Two weeks ago, the final text of the Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a plurilateral pact ostensibly aimed at stamping out the trade in counterfeit goods, was put out by the cabal of countries that have been negotiating it in secret for the past three years. …
Vinod Thomas and Kenneth Chomitz The U.N. Secretary-General has presented options for raising $100 billion a year to promote development while fighting climate change. This is timely, but for such funds to make a difference, we must get past a set of myths that prevent the efficient use of resources. …
