Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS & Others Vs Union of India & Others dated 24/02/2025. The Supreme Court (SC), February 24, 2025 has directed all states to file their affidavits addressing concerns raised about antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs …
A SERIOUS error acknowledged recently by AIDS researchers at USA's prestigious Harvard Medical School is being cited as an example of what can happen when scientists rush into clinical trials pleading that the urgency of their work excuses corner-cutting. In the Harvard incident, field trials were held nationally, based on …
EUROPEAN Community (EC) experts are to report shortly whether the bovine somatotropin (BST) drug can be marketed freely. In making their recommendation, EC experts will not worry about safety reports, but will take into consideration the economic effects of BST-induced milk yields. The scientific evidence against BST, one of the …
FIVE YEARS ago, 52-year-old Don Nelson could barely walk because Parkinson"s disease had reduced him to a cripple. But today, thanks to the foetal-tissue therapy that he underwent in 1988, he is up and about, takes less medication and can once again indulge his passion for wood-carving. The new world …
US-BASED pharmaceutical companies provide incomplete -- and even misleading -- information on the labels of products they market in developing countries, an official study by the office of technology assessment (OTA) states. The study, based on the labelling of 241 products sold in 1988-90 in Kenya, Panama, Brazil and Thailand …
THE ANGLO-US pharmaceuticals group, SmithKline Beecham, has linked up with Human Genome Services of the US to convert DNA coding data into commercial products, especially new drugs. Glaxo and Roche have also made similar forays in the race for a new range of drugs and diagnostic products, which are natural …
EVER SINCE man realised that sex is not limited to procreation, he has experimented with various concoctions to increase his libido. For scientists, however, aphrodisiacs such as ginseng and the Spanish fly have been little more than objects of ridicule. But now a traditional Indian sex vitaliser called Ipomea digitata …
THE JAPANESE pharmaceutical industry will shrink by 10 per cent in three years because of government plans to tighten price controls, say analysts. Drug manufacturers in Japan usually offset price cuts by increases in volume, as the process of drug dispensation in the country offered doctors the incentive to prescribe …
This paper reviews recent developments in the liquid chromatographic (LC) methods of analysis for the residues of antibiotics (aminoglycosides, chloramphenicol, sulfonamides, tetracyclines, macrolides, ?-lactams, etc.) in food products of animal origin. The review also covers clean-up procedures, such as, ultrafiltration, liquid-liquid partition, solid-phase extraction, immunoaffinity, and matrix solid-phase dispersion, for …
FOR MORE than two decades, physicians have believed peptic ulcers to be caused by an excess of acids in the stomach, for which they have been prescribing antacids -- substances that treat acidity -- as a cure. But now it has been found that a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori is …
FOR 11 years now in Bangladesh, transnational pharmaceutical firms have been squeezed out of the market because of a drug policy that has kept down prices of medicines, increased their production and encouraged the local drug industry. But the big firms looking for big bucks may be back if the …
THE FIRST patient of the day at M A Muttalib's clinic in Dhaka is a 6-year-old boy. After asking the boy's mother a few questions, Muttalib prescribes medicine for a parasitic and then comments, "The child goes back into the same unsanitary environment and becomes re-infected. Within six months, he'll …
BANGLADESH'S national drug policy is based on the essential drugs concept propounded by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It says that drugs that satisfy the health needs of the majority of the population should be available at affordable prices at all times in the right dosage. Since 1977, WHO has …
THE EFFICACY of azidothymidine (AZT) in delaying the onset of AIDS symptoms is in serious doubt following a three-year study in Europe, which indicates it makes little difference whether AZT treatment starts early or late. The Anglo-French study, called Concorde, found 29 per cent of the volunteers who took AZT …
TWO BIOCHEMISTS at the Indian Institute of Science say chloroquine -- the primary drug used to combat malaria -- works against the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, by inhibiting protein synthesis. "This knowledge will help us understand how the parasite builds up resistance to the drug and it will also open …
Opposing the pharmaceutical sector's arguments for a more liberal drug policy, several voluntary groups demand all prescription drugs in India should be subject to price controls. The groups met in Delhi recently to discuss a rational drug policy, under the joint aegis of Voluntary Health Association of India, All-India Drug …
What was it that led you to abandon a lucrative career abroad and return to your country? Was it your rural roots? No, though I was born on December 27, 1941, in Uttarpara village of Chittagong district, I had hardly any rural connections. I was schooled in Calcutta, then at …
AN INDIAN-born biologist, Prafulla K Bajpai, and his colleagues at the University of Dayton, Ohio, have developed a novel drug delivery system that will bypass the harmful side-effects of AZT -- the primary drug used in AIDS treatment. AZT, which is usually taken orally as pills, causes swollen tongues, bleeding …
THE RESURGENCE of infectious bacterial diseases in the developed world is proof that the battle against them is not over. But there has been no corresponding surge in drug research, because multinationals consider large investments in research to be uneconomical (Science, Vol 257, No 5073). Scientists warn against complacence in …
ALARMED by spiralling health care costs, the Japanese government is taking steps to wean the public away from its tendency to reach for a variety of pills at the slightest cough or shiver. The Japanese are the biggest spenders on drugs in the world, with a per capita expenditure of …
SCIENTISTS at the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) in Bombay say they now have the expertise to culture the AIDS virus in the laboratory. "This is a first for the country," adds Robin Mukhopadhyaya, who set up a state-of-the-art AIDS research laboratory at CRI about two-and-a-half years ago. This is considered …
