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 …
US BIOTECH shares have fallen 33 per cent since January 1 and many firms face the dismal prospect of going out of business, if investors continue to shy away, afraid that drug price reforms will weaken the industry's profitability. Further deterring investors are US President Bill Clinton's public criticism of …
VISIT the villages of Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh and the sight of flourishing kutir udyog (cottage industry) could lead you to :nti-Gandhian' violence. About 2,000 people in the poppy-growing district are reportedly engaged in the lucrative but illegal manufacture on a cottage-industry basis of drugs derived from opium. Thousands …
MARIJUANA and heroin may be frowned on by parents and the police, but they do have a beneficial side for scientists. Recent breakthroughs in understanding how these two addictive drugs act on the brain could result in a non-addictive opiate that will help drug addicts cope better with withdrawal symptoms. …
A TIENTS who do not respond to AZT -the primary AIDS therapeutic drug produced and patented almo worldwide by Burroughs Wellcome Co -now have hope. Studies at the US Nationi Institutes of Health at Bethesd Maryland, show two other drugs . le DDC produced by Hoffmann at Roche Inc and …
Eminent immunologist G p Talwar , firing the latest salvo in the bovine somatotropin (BST) controversy, asserts there are no harmful side-effects to the artificial growth hormone whose use can dramatically increase the milk yield of the country's bovine population. Talwar maintains BST can increase milk yield by 20 per …
THE DUNKEL draft on the renegotiated GATT is finally becoming a public concern in India and farmers are taking the issue to the streets. Several industrial sectors, too, have expressed concern about some of its provisions. Nevertheless, the government continues to fight shy of revealing either its stand or its …
THE EXORBITANT price of the life-saving, anti-coagulant drug, Acetrome, is enough to give heart patients a cardiac arrest. Between January 1991 and January 1993, the price of a strip of 10 4-mg Acetrome tablets jumped 1,000 per cent from Rs 5.80 to Rs 59.50, effectively putting it out of reach …
HOW IMPORTANT is a chief executive's personality in the way a corporation works? Very, says Matthew Lynn in this book. In a game with billions at stake, it is a rare breed of people who have the vision and the nerve to stay the course and win. Roy Vagelos of …
A PROPOSAL by the National Dairy Development Board to import bovine somatotropin (BST), a synthetic growth hormone for cattle, has run into objections from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), which insists it must first clear BST for safety before it can be used in field tests. The European …
A RECENT article in The Guardian of London on the role played by the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens in tropical botany has sparked a debate regarding its acquisition of tropical plants. The article pointed out proudly certain plants in Kew Gardens have facilitated the discovery and exploitation of many modern …
Women are prescribed twice more psychotropic drugs than men, a discovery that has led to much debate in Britain. Is it because women tend to consult psychiatrists whereas men pour their hearts out to their favourite bartenders? Are women more forthcoming than men to doctors? Data suggests men are less …
THE BRITISH Technology Group (BTG) recently licensed Penn Pharmaceuticals to manufacture a "safer paracetamol," according to a report in New Scientist (Vol 135 No 1836). Paracetamol was considered a safe painkiller until it was found that if consumed in large doses, it could be fatal. When broken down in the …
THOUGH only about 10 per cent of rainforest plants -- far less diverse than ocean life -- have been screened, these have still yielded a number of anti-cancer, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drugs. Research on marine natural products which are far more diverse did not begin until 1973, but according to …
WHO MERITED the gold medal and world record for the 4,000 metre individual pursuit event in cycling at the Barcelona Olympics -- Chris Boardman or Lotus Engineering, the manufacturers of the bike? And are Nigel Mansell's eight Grand Prix wins this year a reflection of his skills or a credit …
OXFORD researchers have found children are more likely to inherit asthma and hay fever from mothers than fathers. The gene responsible, found on chromosome 11, is only active when inherited from the mother. An international team of scientists, led by Bill Cook and Julian Hopkins, speculates that maternal inheritance of …
THE GRAVITY-FREE environment in space will form more perfect crystals of certain proteins and scientists hope that by understanding their protein structure, they will be able to design better drugs to combat diabetes and arthritis, along with some other diseases. A protein derived from the deadly toxin found in castor …
THE SUPREME Court has exempted the sale of steroid-antihistamine drug combinations for treatment of asthma from a ban until the next hearing in August. In 1981, the Drug Technical Advisory Board had recommended a ban on all steroid combinations, excluding asthma drugs. The ban was extended to asthma five years …
IT"S A sweet end to the bitter battle for the Rs-5,000-crore pharmaceuticals industry. The new draft drug policy promises more profit to the industry, and in doing so, puts the need for inexpensive medicines on the back burner. The industry has used every trick in the book, including contrived shortages, …
Environment ministry guidelines state that many of the adverse impacts of thermal plants can be foreseen and minimised through judicious siting, preventive and control measures and effective environmental management. The ministry has been trying to impose very strict emission controls and other standards to mitigate the environmental problems of power …
THE STAKES are high in the rifampicin (a new anti-TB drug) sweepstakes. Lupin Laboratories presently dominates the market, which, according to the ministry of chemicals, did a business of Rs 236 crore during 1992-93. To break the monopoly, which enables Lupin to charge as much as 15 per cent more …
