Pharma News

Department of Health and Family Welfare proposes to implement a Central Sector Scheme for Strengthening the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO); and State Drug Regulatory System during the residual period of Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012 - 2017) at an estimated cost of Rs.900 crore and Rs.850 crore (excluding States’ share) respectively.

(Business Wire India); Tata Capital, the financial services arm of the Tata Group, as part of its Do Right initiative, concluded a first-of-its-kind Survey to identify the major challenges facing our country today. The “Tata Capital India4India” Survey was conducted online on the website – doright.in & saw voting from more than 5000 respondents across the country. The top five challenges that emerged as the most concerning for the Indian public were Basic Healthcare, Illiteracy, Child Rights, Women Empowerment and Food Scarcity.

IP Addendum-2015 to IP-2014 has been released on 28.11.2014 by Sh. Lov Verma, Secretary Health & Family Welfare and Chairman, India Pharmacopoeia Commission in the presence of senior officers of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Scientific Staff of IP Commission.

AstraZeneca announced that MOVENTIG® (naloxegol) has been granted Marketing Authorisation by the European Commission (EC) for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in adult patients who have had an inadequate response to laxative(s). MOVENTIG is the first once-daily oral peripherally-acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist (PAMORA) to be approved in the European Union (EU).

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have taken what they describe as “the first step toward a pill that can replace the treadmill” for the control of obesity, though that shift, of course, would not provide all of the many benefits of exercise.

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One of the reasons cancer is so deadly is that it can evade attack from the body's immune system, which allows tumors to flourish and spread. Scientists can try to induce the immune system, known as immunotherapy, to go into attack mode to fight cancer and to build long lasting immune resistance to cancer cells. Now, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) show a non-surgical injection of programmable biomaterial that spontaneously assembles in vivo into a 3D structure could fight and even help prevent cancer and also infectious disease such as HIV. Their findings are reported in Nature Biotechnology.

Plastic is well-known for sticking around in the environment for years without breaking down, contributing significantly to litter and landfills. But scientists have now discovered that bacteria from the guts of a worm known to munch on food packaging can degrade polyethylene, the most common plastic. Reported in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, the finding could lead to new ways to help get rid of the otherwise persistent waste, the scientists say.

An experimental vaccine to prevent Ebola virus disease was well-tolerated and produced immune system responses in all 20 healthy adults who received it in a phase 1 clinical trial conducted by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. The candidate vaccine, which was co-developed by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), was tested at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The interim results are reported online in advance of print in the New England Journal of Medicine.

(1st December, 2014); Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) signs collab oration agreements with two Indian pharmaceutical companies, Cipla Limited and Strides Arcolab Limited for the development of rectal artesunate for pre - referral treatment of children with severe malaria.

(28th November, 2014); The third week of November is celebrated all over the country by pharmacists with pride ensuring pharmaceutical services in the country to be the best to meet the healthcare needs of the people. Also, it provides an opportunity for pharmacy professionals to make the general public awareness about the profession in providing healthcare services, as compared with other medical and related profession.