The Prescription: Partnership For Safe Medicines India

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News Archive

EDITOR'S EMULSION

Pooja Khaitan

Greetings!

Welcome to yet another edition of our newsletter.

Earlier this month, a two-day international forum was organized by Consumer Online Foundation and Patient Safety and Access Initiative of India Foundation along with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, over the rising issues of illegal and unregulated online pharmacy in India. Read more in this issue under PSM-India Capsules.

Quack, nurses arrested for running a full-fledged hospital in Alwar, Telangana Government launches 'ANMOL' to enable patient data digitally, Woman gives birth to baby girl with heart beating outside her body and World Health Organization names 12 superbugs; most are present in India, Indian scientists can make technology cheaper for breast cancer detection and 70% needy patients in India can't manage to receive dialysis-a life-saving therapy mainly due to non-availability or unaffordability are some major articles to watch out in National and Pharma Injections.

US President Donald Trump's sexual and reproductive health policy changes may threaten women's wellbeing across the world, Pollution kills 1.7 Million children each year, Girls who start menstruating at a younger age are 50 percent more likely to develop gestational diabetes are some of the notable articles from Global Injection. Read More>>>

If you have any suggestions, comments or queries, please email me at pooja@jagograhakjago.com.
You may find our previous issues on jagograhakjago.com or in the NEWS ARCHIVE section of every issue of The PRESCRIPTION, in case you’ve missed any of them. You may also look us up on Facebook under Partnership for Safe Medicines India

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Happy Reading !
Stay Safe. Stay Healthy !

Pooja Khaitan
Chief Editor , The PRESCRIPTION Partnership for Safe Medicines India.

DOSE OF THE DAY

“India’s measles and rubella vaccination campaign is a truly remarkable, world-beating effort, with 41 crore children expected to be covered across the country in the next two years. Apart from improving the life-chances of crores of children in India, the campaign will have a substantial effect on global measles mortality and rubella control targets."

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh
Director, WHO South-East Asia Region

PSM India Capsules

International Forum on Patient Safety and Access to Safe Online Pharmacies

As the internet continues to grow in popularity, immense new opportunities arise, and online pharmacy is one of them. An online pharmacy or internet pharmacy is just like a brick and mortar pharmacy that operate over the Internet and delivers the orders to customers through the shipments. Online Pharmacy has the potential to provide proper digital tracking of medicine sales, prescriptions, doctors and patient’s information; thereby reducing the problems of counterfeit medicines and their abuse.

Drug Laws & Policy Injections

Government to regulate online sale of medicines in 6 months Mumbai, March 2017: The government plans to regulate online pharmacies in the next six months. The Drugs Consultative Committee, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, wants to create a centralized platform to regulate the operations of e-pharmacies. Currently, e-commerce businesses are governed under the Information Technology Act 2000, and the sales of medicines are governed by the Drugs & Cosmetics Act.

DoP asks stent makers to submit weekly report on production, distribution of stents to maintain supply Mumbai, March, 2017: The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has directed the companies manufacturing coronary stents in India to submit a weekly report on coronary stents produced and distributed to maintain a record of production, import and supply of the coronary stents in the country. In separate letters to 62 manufacturers, the DoP has stressed the need for ensuring compliance of the price capping of the coronary stents along with maintaining its uninterrupted supply.

India issues fresh antibiotic guidelines to tackle superbug menaceMUMBAI, MARCH 2017: India, one of the world's biggest consumers of antibiotics, has issued new national guidelines on their use as part of a drive to fight the rise of drug-resistant superbugs. Superbugs are seen as a growing threat to modern medicine, with the emergence in the past year of infections resistant to even last-resort antibiotics.

Stringent Bengal law to curb private hospitals' huge bills, penalise negligenceKolkata, March 2017: Welcoming the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill, 2017 for the "pro-patient" culpable homicide charge for gross medical negligence, People for Better Treatment (PBT) on Friday called for an amendment to the bill to include government hospitals as well under its ambit, failing which the organisation would legally challenge the bill.

Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance urges Centre to join PIC/S to improve global recognition and boost drug exportsMumbai, March, 2017: Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), a representative body of 20 research based pharmaceutical companies, has urged the government of India to join Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S) to enhance recognition of the country as provider of quality drugs and boost drug exports.

NPPA to put a few more drugs under the pricing scannerNew Delhi, March 2017: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has been giving numerous pharmaceuticals a hard time by putting them under the scanner. Recently, the NPPA was in the news after it slashed the prices of coronary stents by 85 percent. Now, the drug pricing regulator is planning to bring a “few more” medicines under pricing control as a part of measures to provide relief to patients.

634 drugs on NPPA's price ceiling non-compliant listNew Delhi, Feb 2017: As many as 634 drugs of various strengths produced by firms, including Cipla, Abbott, Astrazeneca and Dr Reddy's, are "suspected" to be non-compliant with ceiling prices as notified by NPPA. In its latest notification, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) said it issued the list after analysing the market data of various medicines in December last year.

Pharma Injections

World Health Organisation names 12 superbugs; most are present in IndiaNew Delhi, March 2017: The WHO list of drug-resistant bacteria is divided into three categories. The most critical group includes multidrug-resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant `priority pathogens' -a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health. This is bad news for India as most of these 12 superbugs are present in the country.

Indian scientists can make technology cheaper for breast cancer detection, says US scientistNew Delhi, March 2017: Breast cancer detection is an exorbitant procedure, when it comes to the diagnosis. However, with the advancement in technology, the cost-cutting is definitely a possibility and an American genome expert believes that Indian scientists can do it.

70 percent needy patients in India can't access dialysis: Study March 2017: In India, almost 200,000 new patients need dialysis every year, and it is estimated that less than 30 per cent of patients manage to receive this life-saving therapy mainly due to non-availability or unaffordability, says a study.

Genetic variants that may predispose individuals to develop gallbladder cancer identified New Delhi, March 2017: Researchers from India and the US have identified several gene variants which may predispose individuals to develop gallbladder cancer. Although gallbladder cancer is rare in most parts of the world, it is far more common among some ethnic groups, such as Native Americans in North America, and in certain geographic regions, including Central and South America and East and Southeast Asia.

Advances in genetics have changed epilepsy treatment March 2017: For centuries, it was referred to as a sacred disease and the afflicted sought treatment in temples rather than the physician's shop. Little has changed in the way people look at epilepsy over the years, although treatment and diagnosis of the neurological disorder has made rapid strides.

Organ banks for transplants may become a reality March 2017: A new scientific advance can boost the number of donated organs available for transplant, and reduce a critical shortage that leads to thousands of deaths each year. Deep freezing organs and tissue through cryopreservation has been possible since 1980s, but rewarming them without cooking or destroying the tissue has proven difficult.

Beware of Hand Sanitisers: They Can Be Very Harmful for Children March 2017: We are living in a world where there is no scarcity of germs and harmful viruses to create havoc to our health and well-being. The only way we can stay safeguarded is if we make the conscious effort to stay in a clean environment and use precautions. Our hands are the most exposed parts of the body that are prone to catching germs.

Drug Dopes

Updated LIST OF NEW DRUGS APPROVED FROM 01-01-2016 TILL DATE BY NEW DRUGS DIVISION, CDSCO, FDA Bhawan, New Delhi List of New Drug Approved by FDA

Quality of over 10 percent of drugs in government supply chain declared 'substandard' New Delhi, March 2017: A survey by the Union Health Ministry has found that over 10 percent of drugs in the government supply chain were 'Not of Standard Quality' (NSQ).

Gujarat FDCA seizes spurious products from two retailers Mumbai, Feb 2017: Gujarat Food and Drug Administration (FDCA) has detected two Jamnagar based retailers for marketing spurious products manufactured in the name of Gujarat based Mapro Pharmaceuticals India Ltd. The seized samples of Boric Acid IP which is a pharmacopoeial medicine used as disinfectant in hospitals has been sent to Vadodara based lab for further testing and analysis.

BSF seizes 1150 bottles of phensedyl cough syrup Malda (WB), March 2017: BSF personnel seized 1150 Bottles of Phensedyl cough syrup concealed in some bags from near the Indo-Bangla border in Malda district, the BSF said today.

National Injections

Quack, nurses arrested for running hospital in Alwar Alwar, March 2017: A quack running a full-fledge hospital was raided by the police and arrested him along with nine nursing and other healthcare staff in Alwar on Saturday.

Telangana Government launches 'ANMOL' to enable patient data digitally Telangana (Hyderabad), March 2017: Telangana Health Minister C. Laxma Reddy launched a Tab with custom-made software ANMOL (ANM Online) that will enable them to go paperless while recording vital health care statistics and other records of patients.

Himachal Pradesh to have tuberculosis completely under control by 2023, says Health Minister New Delhi, March 2017: Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is an infectious, airborne disease that mainly affects your lungs. It is also one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide.

Low MR vaccine coverage in TN a worry Chennai, March 2017: Only about 50% of children aged nine months to 15 years in Tamil Nadu have been vaccinated by the measles-rubella (MR) combination vaccine since the campaign was launched.

More than half of under-5 kids in India are anaemic Mumbai, March 2017: In a stark and chilling reminder of the realities of life in India, the recently released family health survey (NFHS 4) results show that over 58% of children below five years of age are anaemic, that is, they suffer from insufficient haemoglobin in the blood, leaving them exhausted, vulnerable to infections, and possibly affecting their brain development.

High Court seeks reason for rejection of prostrate cancer drug patent New Delhi, March 2017: The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to explain on what basis the Indian patent office has rejected the application by the Regents of University of California seeking a patent for its prostrate cancer drug.

Doctors at Fortis Hospital remove 838 gallstones from woman's gallbladder in Delhi New Delhi: In a rare, yet terrifying, medical case, doctors at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi, have removed over 830 stones from the gallbladder of a 60-year-old woman. Doctors said the patient, suspected to be suffering from a cancerous tumour, had also been experiencing intermittent bouts of fever and was advised to go for an ultrasound and CT scan.

Global Injections

Trump's health policy changes may put women at risk Washington, March 2017: US President Donald Trump's sexual and reproductive health policy changes may threaten women's wellbeing across the world, an expert has warned.

Pollution kills 1.7 Million children each year: WHO Geneva, March 2017: Each year, environmental pollutants lead to the death of an estimated 1.7 million children under five, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a new report.

Early period may up gestational diabetes risk

Melbourne, March 2017: Girls who start menstruating at a younger age are 50 per cent more likely to develop gestational diabetes, researchers including one of Indian origin have found.

Researchers create painkillers without side effectsLondon, March 2017: Researchers have discovered a new way of developing painkillers that act only on inflamed tissues, while keeping healthy ones unaffected, suggesting that the severe side effects currently associated with these medicines might be avoided.

New treatment to effectively combat migraine in kidsWashington, March 2017: A new, minimally invasive treatment for migraines in children may provide a quicker and safer alternative to medications or intravenous therapies that come with serious side effects, a new study has found.

PSM PILL

California drug counterfeiter sentenced to 10 years in jail

David Beckford was one of 5 California residents charged in a scheme to produce and sell fake Xanax from bulk medication imported from China. A Northern California Federal Court has sentenced Oakland resident David Beckford to ten years in prison after his guilty plea on counterfeit drug, money laundering, and weapons charges, The Department of Justice (DOJ) reports.

Nearly 170 organizations urge congress to protect patients from hazards of drug importation

Coalition Calls on Congress to Maintain Safe Access to Medicines
Washington, D.C. – The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) today sent a letter signed by nearly 170 groups to all members of Congress urging them to continue protecting Americans and stand against efforts that would allow substandard and even dangerous counterfeit medicines to flow freely across U.S. borders and into the hands of the American people.

Frequently Asked Questions Q1. What is Meningitis?
Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes (meninges) surrounding your brain and spinal cord. The swelling from meningitis typically triggers symptoms such as headache, fever and a stiff neck. Most cases of meningitis are caused by a viral infection, but bacterial and fungal infections are other causes. Some cases of meningitis improve without treatment in a few weeks. Others can be life-threatening and require emergent antibiotic treatment. Seek immediate medical care if you suspect that someone has meningitis. Early treatment of bacterial meningitis can prevent serious complications. Read More>>>

SUBSCRIBER'S SYMPTOM

Constipation? Avoid these things!

Article contributed by one of our Subscriber: Ms. Sumanlata, Medical Student, Vellore

Constipation is a condition of the digestive system where an individual has painful defecation that are infrequent or difficult to expel. In general, constipation is when a person is unable to completely empty their bowels. In most cases, this occurs because the colon has absorbed too much water from the food that is in the colon.

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