The government today said the new drug policy which aims at bringing more medicines under price control has been notified.

Prices of drugs that are defined as essential under the existing policy, but will not remain so under the new pharma pricing policy, would be frozen for a year, after which pharmaceutical firms wou

Hyderabad: As the government is planning to go liberal regarding the environmental violations by bulk drug units, the international community has taken up cudgels against the pollution caused by them.

Professor Hans Lofgren, of the Deakin University of Australia said that he will make a representation to his government to take up the issue and also sensitise the US and Sweden against “exporting pollution”. During his visit to some Medak villages located close to pharma units, Prof Lofgren was “shocked” by the extent of pollution and the sufferings of residents.

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.

French pharma giant Sanofi Pasteur is conducting phase-3 trial of a vaccine for dengue in five cities across the country including Bangalore, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

It was the most expensive foreign acquisition by an Indian company in 2006.

Sandoz, the generic arm of Swiss drug maker Novartis, has decided to shut its facility for development of generic drugs in India.

Frankfurt: A new-age singledose vaccine with over 90% protection rate against Japanese Encephalitis (JE), which kills thousands of Indian children every year, will soon be available in the country.

Three months after its move to revoke a closure notices issued against 12 highly polluting pharma companies in the city, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) has now gone a step ahead