MUMBAI, December, 2013: The Union health ministry will soon create a research unit which will provide the much needed research-based information to the ministry for the removal of hazardous and irrational drugs from the pharmaceutical market in the country.

NEW DELHI, December, 2013: The drug price regulator has asked pharmaceutical companies in the country to disclose quarterly data on the amount of essential drugs — both formulations and bulk drugs — they are producing. The move is aimed at ensuring that drugmakers do not stop or cut down on production of essential drugs, prices of which have been capped, or shift to combination drug versions that have been excluded from the price net.

Phil Taylor, 2013
President Obama has signed H.R. 3204 into law, setting the wheels in motion for the FDA to develop a national track-and-trace system to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain. The aim of the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) is to "minimize opportunities for contamination, adulteration, diversion, or counterfeiting," whilst also clarifying the FDA's authority to regulate compounding pharmacies, according to the White House.

SILVER SPRING, Md., DECEMBER, 2013 : The anti-seizure drug clobazam (Onfi) carries a small risk of severe skin reactions that requires a new label warning, the FDA said. Twenty patients worldwide, including six in the U.S., have developed Stevens-Johnson syndrome or toxic epidermal necrolysis after taking clobazam, the agency said. One patient went blind as a result and all 20 had to be hospitalized. Five of the U.S. cases involved children.

Illinois, December, 2013: Baxter International Inc. has voluntary recalled one lot of nitroglycerin in five per cent dextrose injection due to particulate matter found in one vial. If infused, particulate matter could lead to potential venous and/or arterial thromboembolism (blockage of blood vessels.) Other adverse events associated with injection of particulate matter include inflammation due to foreign material, particularly in the lungs, and local irritation of blood vessels.

HYDERABAD : Online sales of drugs like pain killers and steroids, apart from performance enhancing drugs, have seen a rapid increase. But with 10 per cent of these drugs being counterfeit, drug manufacturers are looking at hi-tech advanced labeling and marking methods, which will help people differentiate the real from the fake.

Did you know that a quarter of all spam messages sent are offering medicines? Your chances are of getting genuine medication from a "pharmacy" you have never heard of that advertises using spam are very poor indeed. Spam emails are an inexpensive way for spurious drug criminals to target innocent consumers. Do not trust them.