ICMR

Aiming to understand the potential health benefits of rotavirus vaccination and also to develop a national representative data on rotavirus burden and strains in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon embark on task force projects on burden of rotavirus diarrhoea in India under the Indian Rotavirus Surveillance Network.

Even as the dust is yet to settle down over the HPV vaccine trial and death of three tribal girls in Andhra Pradesh, records showed that the total number of deaths among the clinical trial subjects, though not officially termed as part of the trials, are on the increase in India.

Two H1N1 drugs - oseltamivir and zanamavir, the controversial sub-fertility drug letrozole, popular non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug nimesulide, decongestant drug phenylpropanolamine (PPA), antibiotic drug gatifloxacine, chronic constipation drug tegaserod, type-2 diabetes drug pioglitazone and rosiglitazone have been selected for the first phase of national pharmacovigilance programme which will begin in select 40 medical colleges across the country from April this year.