Khomba Singh & Sushmi Dey
NEW DELHI

THE commerce ministry

30 agreements to be signed; they violate public interest say activists the seventh round of free trade negotiations between India and EU held at Brussels in mid-July ended in a deadlock after the negotiators disagreed on the modalities of the agreement. Fresh talks will be held in November to thresh out details of the free trade agreement (fta) to ease movement of goods and open up

Tender bias: Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has sued the South African government for showing bias towards local pharma companies while awarding contracts worth US $400-million to supply anti-retroviral drugs for a UN sponsored HIV/AIDS programme. The company is currently the world

THE health ministry is planning to send a team of drug inspectors to China to inspect drug manufacturing facilities that supply bulk drugs to India. Bulk drugs are raw material used for manufacturing medicines or formulations. India imports a huge quantity of bulk drug from China due to the low pricing of Chinese raw material.

Some 200 out of around 250 licensed drug companies are churning out sub-standard medicines, officials of the Directorate of Drug Administration allege, while lawyers say the country's lone drug court remains idle as authorities, including the DDA, fail to take legal action against the offenders.

That the market is flooded with adulterated medicines is a longtime allegation.

New Delhi: India could have its very own indigenous vaccine against H1N1 influenza by September.

Health Ministry Plans To Place Orders With Ranbaxy, Cipla, Hetero Drugs, Natco and Roche To Tackle Any Emergency

The work on manufacturing of vaccines for H1N1 (swine flu) has begun in India, and now the World Health Oraganisation (WHO) is looking at it for the production of vaccines for the rest of the world as well.