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 …
LIVEWIRE anti-drug lobbyists in the US have always suggested a simple solution to the menace of drug trafficking and peddling -- the electric chair. And a penitentiary for "junkies". Former president Ronald Reagan's more "practical" administration initiated a multi-million-dollar international crusade against drugs, which involved international intelligence activity, Sting-type gang-busting, …
The German pharmaceutical giant Schering AG is in for a hard time. Androcur and Diane 35, 2 of its best-selling drugs marketed in Europe, are suspected to be potential causes of cancer. Tests carried out on rodents by the Federal Institute for Medication and Medical Products revealed a possible carcinogenic …
The Lucknow-based Central Drug Research Institute (cdri) is awaiting permission from the Drug Controller of India to commence the testing of a memory drug among human volunteers. cdri director V P Kamboj claims that significant advances have been made in testing constituents from the medicinal plant Brahmi (Bacopa monniea). Kamboj …
HOW do you ensure that a cancer drug injected into the bloodstream reaches its target without being mauled by enzymes stalking the blood highway? And how do you pack ever greater information on to ever diminishing silicon wafers without causing a "traffic jam" on the chip? To cope with these …
THE defining feature of modern, Western medical perception is the dominance of the laboratory -- it is the biomedical laboratory which determines whether you are 'sick' or 'healthy', it gives you the drugs, and in the medical profession has the highest prestige attached to it. And, of course, as preventive …
A NEW drug to treat thalassaemia -- a genetically transmitted children's blood disorder that causes the rapid destruction of red blood cells leading to anaemia -- is set to hit the Indian market. Developed by George J Kontoghiorghes at the haematology department of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine …
IF YOU fail to respond to a drug, it could be because your body is smashing it up without so much as a hello. Scientists have known for some time now that this happens particularly with drugs that mimic proteins. These drugs usually occur in 2 molecular forms -- one …
TAXOL, the anti-cancer wonder drug extracted from the leaves and bark of the yew tree, has found another target. Researchers at the University of California School of Medicine say that polycystic kidney diseases (PKD), the most common hereditary kidney disease which accounts for 10 per cent of the patients requiring …
SCIENCE appears to have finally found the elusive cure for baldness. Proscar, a drug manufactured by Merck & Co to treat enlarged prostate glands, has an interesting side-effect: in low doses, it increases hair growth. In clinical trials carried out on 200 young men at an early stage of baldness, …
"THE limitations of present health activities are only a reflection of the modern system of medicine (which) has not yet developed a way of dealing with health problems at the social level," says the book. This yawning gap between academic and ground reality is what it aims to plug. Using …
CAPITALISING on more than 100 years of expertise in plant product chemistry, Dabur, one of India's largest Ayurvedic formulation manufacturers, has now ventured into modern pharmaceutical research and product development. Dabur recently announced that it had perfected a method to extract taxol -- a potent drug used to treat ovarian …
US drug companies are responding to criticism of the high cost of prescription medicines by putting out a new message for consumers: "We are not out to fleece you. We are, in fact, toiling hard to 'discover' drugs that will cure terminal diseases". They have kicked off a television advertising …
MEDICAL research aims at producing technologies for the human good. But in pursuit of this objective, should we allow medical research to violate basic human rights? The violence of a male-dominated scientific establishment is being directed against the weaker members of society: women, the poor, and the illiterate. This exploitation …
• Nicolas Hayek, chairperson of SMH AG, is looking for a partner to introduce the automotive equivalent of the Swatch watch he made famous in the 1980s. Hayek's inexpensive, stylish and "environmentally correct" car is to have low pollution levels, thanks to a hybrid system of battery- and gasoline-powered motors. …
In the first week of December, the Prime Minister's office gave the go-ahead for the establishment of the National Drug Authority (NDA) to oversee the formulation and supply of medicines in the country. However, the scope of the NDA has been reduced drastically from what was envisioned when the body …
Prescription of antibiotics in Northern Ireland increased 207 per cent during 1988-91, say researchers at the University of Belfast. Drugs for heart patients and antacids also registered boosts of 126 and 46 per cent respectively. Furthermore, the investigation revealed a three-fold increase in the prescription of oral antibiotics and that …
WITH THE commissioning of India's largest particle accelerator -- a machine that propels sub-atomic particles to high speeds -- at the Nuclear Science Centre (NSC) in New Delhi, research groups from all over the country now have access to state-of-the-art facilities for experiments in nuclear physics, material sciences and biophysics. …
TWO CHEMISTS in Hyderabad, working separately, have synthesised many complex organic molecules (those containing carbon) that are the basic constituent of most drugs. The chemistry of carbon is essential to understand the basis of all life, as most biological processes are mediated by organic compounds. Govardhan Mehta, a professor of …
MOST OF us are familiar with only three states of matter -- solid, liquid and gas. But there is another form of matter -- plasma -- that is neither solid, liquid nor gas. Plasma is composed of charged particles -- electrons and ions -- whereas other matter consists of neutral …
• Western mining companies are rushing towards a new eldorado: Cuba. This year, Joutel Resources of Canada became the first western firm to sign an exploration agreement with the Cuban mining agency Geominera. And, with a mining analyst calling Cuba a "genuinely under-explored area", Joutel is being followed by Australia's …
