Historic it may be—even if watered down. The unanimous adoption of a “political declaration” by the UN on the need to fight the rising tide of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is a singular development and, as analysts have been reminding us, it is only the second time a health issue has …
Last week just as Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis was set to begin its final arguments in the Supreme Court against the rejection of a patent for its cancer drug Glivec (see ‘Evergreen Novartis’, Down To Earth, September 1-15) there were two swift and stunning developments. A letter was written by …
WHILE waste from drug factories continues to be a major concern for the environment, not much attention is paid to pollution that results from household consumption of drugs. Very few models exist to trace the trajectory of drugs and determine their fate. Now scientists from Autonomous University of Barcelona in …
Why is the pharmaceutical industry taking such a keen interest in the Pesticides Management Bill, 2008, or PMB, which would appear to be as far removed from drugs as chalk from cheese? The Bill, pending in Parliament since 2008, is all set to be debated in the current session with …
WHETHER taken for severe ailments like cancer or used occasionally for minor pains, painkillers have side-effects. It can be anything from lethargy and constipation to kidney or liver dysfunction. This is the reason scientists have lately turned to nature and are exploring traditional medicines in search of a drug with …
The Planning Commission of India has set up a working group to look into the drug regulatory mechanism in the country. One of the tasks the panel has been entrusted is to devise a strategy to weed out irrational drugs from the market. Most of these drugs are fixed dose …
The government’s ambitious mission to control diabetes has made a reluctant start. Worse, it suffers from lack of planning. The project was launched as part of the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS). The first phase of the diabetes control project started …
This refers to the editorial “When business rules our kitchens” (June 16-30, 2011). Do we want to sensationalise the issue of poor food safety regulations and use big companies as a whipping boy or work on the solutions? How are we going to deal with the fundamental issue of feeding …
THAT day when Darla Dhanalakshmi suffered severe joint pain and numbness in the limbs she knew something was seriously wrong. She had been suffering from the pain since January after she visited a clinic on the outskirts of Hyderabad. There she was asked to pop an unknown pill. The pain …
THE spectre of superbug still hangs heavily on the residents of Delhi. To make matters worse, another study conducted in the capital has found that cholera bacteria might also be becoming resistant to drugs. Similar results were found in a study conducted at Solapur district of Maharashtra. The studies found …
Nine-year-old Rani is unhappy. She has to stay away from her mother Janki Patel, who is taking part in a clinical trial at a centre 10 kilometres from her house at Bapu Nagar in Ahmedabad. “I do not like these trials. They take my parents away,” says Rani. In their …
To tighten regulations around clinical trials, a bill was drafted in 2002. Framed as per the guidelines of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it was submitted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2007 to be tabled in Parliament. But it has seen no progress ever since. …
What if a participant dies during a clinical trial? ICMR guidelines clearly mention that a participant must be insured for injuries and deaths. They bind ethics committees to review insurance documents before giving approval for the trial. Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and pharmaceutical companies say they ensure that participants are …
BAN ON the drug diclofenac, administered on domestic animals, has had a positive impact on the vulture population. It had not been quantified till recently. The rate of decline has slowed down—from 40 per cent to 18 per cent. The number of oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) had dropped drastically …
THE national vaccine policy draft, submitted in the Delhi High Court recently, strongly favours inclusion of new vaccines in the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). The court had sought the draft from the Centre last year in a case against introduction of new vaccines. It will hear the case next on …
Why are bees important to humans? The 20,000 or so species of bees are the principal pollinators of plants, both in gardens and in the wild. If you like having flowering plants around, for the most part you need to have bees around. There is a need to create awareness …
DRUG-resistant NDM-1 gene has been debated ever since India was identified a source of the gene in patients in the UK. The debate intensified on April 7, 2011, when the journal Lancet Infectious Disease published a paper which stated that the gene (New Delhi Metallo-betalactamase- 1) was found in tap …
How does this device work? There is a phenomenon in nature called shockwave. For example, in a volcanic explosion most of the energy is carried away by a shock wave. Whenever such a wave travels through any medium, it increases the pressure and temperature within microseconds. A big Pokhran blast, …
LICENCES of public-sector, vaccine-manufacturing units were restored more than a year ago. But the units are yet to resume supply of vaccines to the Centre’s Universal Immunisation Programme, and it will not happen any time soon if one were to believe activists. The Central Research Institute (CRI) at Kasauli in …
CHILDREN and adolescents injected with a swine flu vaccine could be at an increased risk of a sleeping disorder, warned a study. Made by multinational pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline, Pandemrix vaccine was used in 47 countries, including India, during the swine flu outbreak in 2009-10. Finland’s National Institute for Health and …
