Vaccine from Vietnam found effective in a trial in Kolkata A new reformulated oral cholera vaccine (ocv), earlier tested and found effective in Vietnam, was found to be safe in a cholera endemic region in Kolkata.

the Drugs Controller General of India (dcgi) is preparing guidelines for linking the drug regulatory authority and the Indian patent office. The system called

Anil Urs / Bangalore July 30, 2008, 0:12 IST

Indian biotechnology firms are steadily moving up the value chain by offering research and development (R&D) services for global pharma companies to aid drug discovery and manufacture.

Companies are offering services in drug discovery and validation based on pathway analysis (that is, analysis of how toxic or radioactive substances reach humans), genomics (study of gene sequences in living organisms), proteomics (large-scale study of proteins) and translational research (clinical investigation with human patients or volunteers).

P B Jayakumar / Mumbai July 29, 2008, 5:18 IST

Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the country's third-biggest drugmaker, will form a joint venture with one of the world's biggest biotech companies to make biosimilars or generic versions of patented biotech drugs to take on Ranbaxy Laboratories, Reliance Life Sciences, among other Indian companies. Several drugs are expected to come off patent in this segment in the next five years.

Joe C Mathew / New Delhi July 24, 2008, 0:03 IST

Two United States senators have asked the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to provide details of market approvals given to all medicines sold by India's largest drug-maker Ranbaxy in that country.

The senators, John Dingell and Bart Stupak, also want the FDA inspectors who were in charge of drug approvals for Ranbaxy to appear before a House of Representatives committee by the end of August.

Ranbaxy said on Tuesday that UK's English Crown court has quashed the country's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecution of the firm's subsidiary. This has come as a welcome breather for the company, which is facing investigations in US for selling sub-standard drugs.

Ranbaxy said that the court also declined an application by the SFO for permission to appeal to the English court of appeal, although the SFO retains a right to appeal to the Court of Appeal directly.

P B Jayakumar / Mumbai July 23, 2008, 0:20 IST

Pharmaceutical companies in the country offering any financial incentive to doctors to prescribe particular drugs may become a thing of the past if the drug manufacturers decide to follow the strict code of conduct being implemented by a US industry trade group.

BS Reporter / New Delhi July 23, 2008, 0:52 IST

Ranbaxy Laboratories today said it has won a two-year-old case against UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the English Crown Court, a morale boosting relief to the domestic drug major.

SFO had taken Ranbaxy's UK subsidiary, Ranbaxy (UK), to court on charges of price-fixing in some of its penicillin-based antibiotics between 1996 and 2000.

Joe C Mathew / New Delhi July 23, 2008, 0:19 IST

Boehringer Ingelheim, the $17-billion German pharma major that set up a subsidiary in India three years back, has decided to adopt a partnership model to tap the domestic market.

The company is exploring collaborative research options. It will launch its entire research portfolio in the country, said Managing Director J