Top cancer drugs may come under price control

For India, the inclusion of new cancer therapies gain significance as data suggest that India loses 7,00,000 lives to cancer every year. Companies such as Biocon, Dr Reddys, Cadila Healthcare and Reliance Lifesciences are some that are actively focusing on the biosimilars market.

NEW DELHI: Taking cue from the World Health Organisation’s revised list of essential medicines, popular biosimilars for cancer cure like bevacizumab or trastuzumab and treatments like immunotherapy may get incorporated in India’s revised National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), thereby bringing a whole new set of oncology medicines and treatments under price control, said officials in the know.

An expert group on oncology, which is slated to meet on Tuesday, is contemplating adding these to the NLEM, one of the experts told ET....read more

Most Kota infants deaths in India are occurring within 48 hours of admission

Net death rate of an institution is not the same as gross death rate. In Kota government hospital over 106 infants have died. If we want to do preventive Public Health audit, we need to compare the gross death rate with the institutional net death rate; both are different terms.

Institutional net death rate does not consider deaths occurring in the first 48 hours of admission. It assumes that very sick and serious infants are unlikely to survive if they die within 48 hours of admission....read more

Why do we Offer Food to God in Every Pooja?

We follow a ritual of offering ‘bhog’ to the deity we worship. The ritual also involves sprinkling water all around the place where we sit down to eat food. Many people have advocated that the sprinkling of water is related to preventing ants and insects from approaching the food. But in spiritual language there is a deeper meaning to these rituals....read more

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No training centres for pharma students

Pune Mirror

PCI wants students to train at designated shops, despite having none in the state Various chemists’ associations have claimed that pharmacy students will suffer due to Pharmacy Council of India’s (PCI’s) decision to allow practical training at its approved stores. The catch — PCI does not have a single store in the state, claims Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC). This decision has come as an appendage to the Pharmacy Practice Regulations, 2015, that bind students to 500 hours of mandatory training at chemist shops so as to be able to register with the respective state’s pharmacy council. The training involves handling medicines, storage, disbursement, entry in the system, reading prescription, disposing and handling of expired medicines etc. By the end of the session, the students have to submit their training and passing certificates for registrations. These regulations are applicable to students in 250 pharmacy institutes, who had been practising at stores run by hospitals and individuals. There were instances, where PCI found discrepancies in the work experience certificates submitted by the students, following which a public notice was issued on December 20, 2019 mandating students to train at PCIapproved stores. This additional rule will be impossible to implement, believes Kailash Tandle, president of Maharashtra Registered Pharmacy Association (MRPA). “Thousands of students complete the DPharm course every year. With no PCIapproved store in the state, it will be impossible for them to acquire certificates. Even if some chemist shops are designated for this purpose, the crowd from rural areas will be hit,” he said. His views were echoed by national president of All Food and Drug Licence Holder Foundation, Abhay Pandey. “PCI should have taken pharmacists into confidence, asking them to get the required approvals for training centres. Now the question is, will PCI make the first move to establish the centres? If they do, how many chemists will agree to registrations?” he asked.

Roadmap for medical devices still has some regulatory stumbling blocks

The Hindu Business Line - PT Jyothi Datta

Against the backdrop of recalled products and patient compensation issues, a slew of meetings are underway between government and industry representatives to hammer out a roadmap for the medical device industry. Even as one such meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at the NITI Aayog, an industry consensus seems elusive just yet, even on key regulatory issues. For long now, the industry has called for a separate dispensation for medical products, as compared to drugs. But when it comes to execution, not everyone seems to want a clean break from the present system. Calling for medical devices to “emerge” from the shadow of drugs, is Rajiv Nath with the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD). “Medical devices should walk alongside big brother (pharma), but separately,” he says, adding that the industry would remain under the Health Ministry. The new framework would balance being industry-friendly with being patient-oriented as well. There are provisions to make products track and traceable, besides rules that outline “risk-proportionate controls and penalties”, he explained. ‘Make in India’ move - Referring to recent consultations, he said, the direction was to support “Make in India” and help local producers export.

GMCH doctor ‘suffering from depression’ ends life

The Times of India- Arpita Sharad

A 28-year-old assistant professor working at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) was found dead in his flat at Beghumpura area here on Monday. Police said the doctor, Sheshadri Gowda, who was working in the medicine department of the hospital, has stated in his suicide note that he was suffering from “psychiatric illness”. Gowda hailed from Karnataka and was sharing the flat with another GMCH doctor, who was on emergency duty for three days in the hospital, and called him around 1pm. The room mate approached the Beghumpura police after Gowda neither answered his phone calls nor opened the door. Police inspecter Sachin Sanap said his team immediately went to the flat. “A duplicate key had to be made to open the door since the doctor did not respond to constant knocking of the door. He was found lying on the bed with self-administered IV fluid and several injections next to him.” The doctor was taken to the GMCH where he was declared brought dead. The post mortem will be conducted on Tuesday. Until late Monday evening, no case was registered. Sanap said the suicide note found at the Gowda’s flat states that he suspects that he is suffering from a psychiatric illness and for the last 15 days, he was having episodes of depression and was unable to take decisions, which led him to take the extreme step of ending his life. Gowda got his MD medicine from GMCH Aurangabad. He completed the PG course in May 2019 and was awarded with gold medal from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences for his performance in this course.

66 neonatal deaths in Surat Civil Hospital in December 2019

The Times of India- TNN

Sixty-six neonatal deaths were reported in Surat Civil Hospital in December 2019. Sixty children died in October and 69 in November 2019 in the hospital. A total of 699 infants had died during neonatal period in SCH in 2019. According to available figures, in SCH in last four years, 2,965 infants had died during neonatal period. In 2016 the figure was 661, in 2017 it was 698, in 2018 it was 907 and in 2019 it is 699. NCH in-charge medical superintendent Dr Priti Kapadia said, “The facts about Surat Civil Hospital have been reported to Kumar Kanani, minister of state, health and family welfare and medical education, when he visited the hospital on Sunday.” Kumar Kanani told TOI, “As far as Surat Civil Hospital is concerned, only half truth has been reported. Neonatal deaths are only around 30 per cent.” He added in Surat Civil Hospital 9,579 deliveries took place in 2019, of which 352 infants died. “Another 1,016 mothers or infants were referred for treatment to civil hospital from hospitals in Navsari, Dang, Tapi and Valsad. And out of these, 309 children died during neonatal period,” Kanani said. The minister said, “We have sought figures from all cities in the state and will take action against responsible persons. In Surat, the death of infants is just around 4 per cent.”