New Delhi Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha on Friday urged the group of ministers on pharma pricing, headed by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, to extend the regime of price control to all the drugs available in the retail market.

Mirdha argued that profits earned by pharma companies were primarily used in promotional expenses and for foray into other businesses. She claimed that top-50 pharma companies spend over R5,300 crore every year, while generating sales of slightly over R28,769 crore.

New Delhi The government has made it mandatory for pharmaceutical companies sponsoring clinical trials in the country to pay financial compensation to volunteers in case a trial-related death or injury is proved. Moreover, the onus of proving that clinical trials did not cause death or injury will now lie with the drug company, according to a recent notification of the health ministry.

New Delhi The government plans to quantify the economic losses the country suffers by compromising on food safety.

The country’s food regulator — Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) — has already initiated talks with the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, in this regard. “In India, data on economic losses due to food safety is either not available and if available, it is lying scattered with various agencies.

Just like our people, every Indian-origin drug will be counted and have its history documented soon.

The US and India are keen on working together on a low-cost intervention programme to combat diabetes which has emerged as a critical public health challenge for both the countries. This decision is a product of the brainstorming session of the high-powered US-India CEOs