The first-ever indigenous low-cost pathogen kit, use to check food contamination, is all set to hit the market. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will inaugurate the kits this week.

Contrary to the popular belief that India is becoming dumping ground for clinical trials, the recent data, in fact, shows that the number of clinical trials are on a downward spiral.

As per the government data, in 2011 the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) received 306 applications for approval of clinical trials. It went up to 480 in 2012 but dropped significantly to 207 in 2013.

Indian pharmaceutical companies will have to stop using plastic or PET containers in liquid oral formulations meant for paediatric formulations, geriatrics, women in reproductive age group and pregnant women.

Viewing adverse effects on drug formulations packed in plastic bottles, the government has decided to ban use of plastic/PET containers in liquid oral formulations and has given six months to the companies to switch over.

The polio eradication programme in India has so far been well on track as a result of which India achieved a significant feat in 2012 after the WHO struck off India from the list of polio endemic c

Even as the threat of importing polio from polio-endemic countries looms large over India, which has not reported a single polio case since 2011, the government stands by the international health r

About one-third of the world’s population — 2.4 billion people — will remain without access to improved sanitation in 2015, according to a joint WHO/Unicef report issued on Monday.

The report — Progress on sanitation and drinking-water 2013 update, warns that at the current rate of progress, the 2015 millennium development goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of the 1990 population without sanitation will be missed by 8 per cent, or half a billion people.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria said on Monday that strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely. The International health agencies also highlighted an annual need of at least US$ 1.6 billion in international funding for treatment and prevention of the disease.

The WHO said that if fully funded, by 2016 over 90% of TB patients estimated to have MDR-TB will be detected and provided treatment in seven high-MDR-TB burden countries including India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Ukraine and South Africa.

A vaccine to combat malaria could become a reality by 2014. While currently there are no licensed vaccines against malaria or any other human parasite, a research vaccine against P. falciparum, known as RTS,S/AS01, is at an advanced stage.

According to the WHO experts, the vaccine is currently being evaluated in a large clinical trial in 7 countries in Africa. However, the WHO recommendation for use will depend on the final results from the large clinical trial. “These final results are expected in late 2014, and a recommendation as to whether or not this vaccine should be added to existing malaria control tools is expected in 2015”.

India will soon have a scientific regulatory agency responsible for the safety of the nation’s domestically produced and imported foods, cosmetics, drugs, biologics, medical devices, and radiological products.

Proposed on the lines of Centre for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in USA and the Centre for Disease Control, the new agency to be set up under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will be responsible for promoting and protecting public health by ensuring that nation’s food supply and cosmetics are safe and honestly labelled. Sources said that the “implementation of this project will be started after the final approval of the 12th plan by the National Development Council, which is expected shortly.”

In a bid to ensure that the drugs available in the country are safe for consumption, the Drug Controller-General of India (DCGI) has asked the state drug inspectors to get the samples of the drugs collected and get them tested for their quality at the drug testing laboratories.

The issue was taken up during a discussion on spurious, substandard, expired drugs in the Union health ministry early this month after which it was decided to get the drug samples collected and be tested for their safety. A letter to this effect has been sent out to the state drug inspectors. DCGI has asked the inspectors to draw samples of drugs from the manufacturing sites and sent them to the Central Drug Testing Laboratories for prompt testing. DCGI has instructed to complete the “special drive” within a period of six-nine months.