Healthcare News Monitor

After engineering, no new pharmacy colleges until ’22

Hindustan Times- Shreya Bhandary

After banning new engineering colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has placed a two-year ban on new pharmacy colleges, until 2022. This is because the AICTE as well as the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), a statutory body under the Central government which regulates pharmacy education and practices, believe that many colleges performed poorly at academics and there were not enough jobs for pharmacy graduates to justify the boom in the number of colleges. The decision to not allow more pharmacy colleges was taken at a meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday, barely a month after the PCI proposed a five-year freeze on colleges offering diploma and degree courses. In January this year, the AICTE decided to not permit new engineering colleges from the academic year 2020-21. According to AICTE, the intake capacity of pharmacy institutes across India has gone up by 49.5% in the last three years, and this year alone, the capacity increased by 28.1%. From 1,809 diploma and graduate pharmacy institutes that existed in the country 2017-18, the number grew to 3,276 in 2019-20.

Supreme Court refers decision on Oxytocin ban to a larger bench

moneycontrol- Viswanath Pilla

A two judge bench of Supreme Court on August 22 referred the matter to a larger bench, with a set of questions to decide on whether it would be in public interest to restrict manufacture of life-saving drug Oxytocin for domestic use to a single public sector undertaking. “We are of the considered view that this is a fit case to refer the matter to a larger Bench of three Judges to consider the aforesaid questions of law, and authoritatively pronounce upon the same,” the two-bench Supreme Court said in its order. Moneycontrol saw a copy of the order. The bench directed the Apex Courts registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice of India for necessary directions. The case came up before Supreme Court after the Central government challenged the Delhi High Courts verdict of December last year that quashed the government’s decision to ban private manufacturers from making and selling Oxytocin, calling it unreasonable and arbitrary. The Centre in April, 2018, had prohibited private firms from the sale and manufacture of Oxytocin on the grounds of widespread misuse of the drug in the dairy sector to increase milk productivity. Questions for larger bench - The apex court bench, consisting of Justices A M Sapre and Indu Malhotra, have formulated several questions for the larger bench in their judgement order. Oxytocin is a hormonal drug used to induce labour and prevent bleeding during child birth. The is categorized as essential life­-saving drug, which is included in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2011.

Think big to reach goal of a $5 trillion economy, boost healthcare for all

The Asian Age – Guest Article

Two goals of the Narendra Modi government make for an interesting comparison. One is of course the overarching goal of taking the Indian economy to the level of $5 trillion by 2024-25 and the other is doubling the share of public health spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2024-25. To achieve the $5 trillion goal, the economy will need to grow at the rate of eight per cent every year between now and then, as noted in the recent Economic Survey. However, to achieve the goal of 2.5 per cent, public health spending needs to grow at a much faster pace — by more than 20 per cent per annum in real terms. At $5 trillion, India’s per-person GDP will be $3,420 — representing a nearly 60 per cent increase over the current level of $2,100. Whereas at 2.5 per cent of GDP, India’s per-person public health spending will be $86 — representing a nearly 200 per cent increase over the current level of $30. At $5 trillion, India’s economy may turn into be the third-largest economy in the world but India will continue to be a lower-middle income country as per the World Bank classification (entry into higher middle-income category requires per-person GDP to be over $3,995), and the size of its public health spending will still be way below that of many countries.

Want certainty and predictability in price control mechanism for drugs: OPPI

moneycontrol – PTI

While pharma industry supports governments initiatives to provide medicines at affordable price to the people, it wants certainty and predictability in the price control mechanism, the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) said. The industry body said it aims to make sure that innovative drugs that are available in the rest of the world are made available in India as soon possible. "The certainty and predictability of price control mechanism is very important for us. What we want is clarity and stable policies so that we can plan and anticipate in advance," OPPI President and Glaxo SmithKline Pharmaceuticals MD India & Vice President South Asia A Vaidheesh told PTI. OPPI is not against any of the government initiatives to give medicines at affordable prices to the people, he said. "As a body we also want to understand how to provide medicines at affordable price through healthcare financing mechanism," Vaidheesh said. He said the industry is evaluating how to participate in Ayushman Bharat to make sure that common men gets access to latest products through the financing schemes, he added. "We also want that drugs that are already very cheap should not be in the price control mechanism," Vaidheesh said. He pointed out that it was essential to maintain the quality of generic medicines. OPPI also announced the launch of a nationwide digital campaign #RefreshingResearch across pharma colleges in the country to highlight the role of science and research in improving patient lives.

India hosts 66% of leprosy patients,  shows  WHO data

Mint- Neetu Chandra Sharma

India has become the leprosy capital of the world in the 14 years since it was declared free of the disease, as lack of vigilance and unfriendly laws paved the way for its return. India officially eliminated leprosy in 2005, reducing its prevalence rate to 0.72 per 10,000 people at national level. But the country now hosts 66% of all leprosy patients in the world, data from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed. In 2016-17, at least 1,35,485 cases of leprosy were detected in the country, but public health experts say this is an under-estimate. “Regional disparities remained and have not been adequately addressed since 2005. After the World Health Organization declared India leprosy-free, the country didn’t pay much attention to surveillance and case finding. This has resulted in resurfacing of the disease," said Tehseen Zaidi, manager, communications and advocacy at Sasakawa - India Leprosy Foundation, a charitable organization working on mainstreaming leprosy affected. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan wrote to his colleagues in the law and social justice ministries on Tuesday, seeking amendment of existing laws which he said were discriminating against persons affected by leprosy. Vardhan asked the ministers to expedite the process and introduce of the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons Affected by Leprosy (EDPAL) Bill, drafted by the Law Commission of India and annexed in its 256th report.