Beijing has announced a raft of reforms for procuring generic drugs. This has renewed hope for Indian pharma companies, which in the last two decades had lost their hold on the Chinese market. Sluggish growth in India, the US, and Europe makes this newfound opportunity all the more attractive.
Beijing has announced a raft of reforms for procuring generic drugs. This has renewed hope for Indian pharma companies, which in the last two decades had lost their hold on the Chinese market. Sluggish growth in India, the US, and Europe makes this newfound opportunity all the more attractive.
US biotechnology giant Amgen/Allergan has surprised Biocon/Mylan by launching a biosimilar of trastuzumab in the US. The move is a big jolt for Biocon/Mylan, as it was widely believed that they would launch first and gain an edge. Biocon, however, feels it has sufficient edge and stays unaffected.
The health ministry wants a new governing body for your physician. Will it manage to rein in the rampant corruption charges against the current system?
There is an urgent need to make laws less cumbersome and promote cadaver donations. Tamil Nadu’s successful model, driven by a public-private-NGO partnership, has lessons for the entire country. Meanwhile, illegal organs trade is still flourishing.
Samples of China-made valsartan, a widely used anti-hypertension compound, have been found to contain carcinogenic impurities. Indian pharma companies have used that ingredient from the same supplier. But regulators in India have ignored the risk.
The health-insurance scheme, which some feel focuses on tertiary care, has got a big funding boost in the budget, while other healthcare programmes took a backseat. This could turn out to be a myopic policy.
Medall has emerged as the dominant diagnostic-services chain in south India and is looking to break into new markets across the country through acquisitions. But it has endured a long wait for a deep-pocketed investor.
A home-grown project to develop an affordable vaccine helped poor countries save millions of children from diarrhoea. One of its architects, Gagandeep Kang, was recently named a Fellow of the Royal Society. A reclusive scientist’s story of grit and passion.
In the West, cancer-treatment is moving towards minimum treatment through predictive diagnostics. In India, a clutch of startups are working on similar lines, but oncologists are not yet convinced about their utility. They demand more validation. Plus, there are the issues of cost and low incidence of early detection.
Healthcare providers as well as patients feel the nexus between insurers, third-party administrators, and their preferred hospitals often causes unnecessary harassment during claims. Recent judicial intervention is seen to be paving the way for cashless claims by an insured patient at any hospital — irrespective of whether it is part of the insurer's network. But the industry is worried that this will open the floodgates for fraudulent claims.
