• Doctor’s Protest: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Indian doctors of having a nexus with pharmaceutical companies for unethical rewards. Across India, over 3 lakh member doctors of the the Indian Medical Association (IMA) responded to the PM’s remarks by wearing black ribbon around their arms.
• Professionals from the pharma and healthcare industry are paid the highest: With an average annual CTC of approximately INR 9.6 lakhs across all levels and functions, professionals from the pharma and healthcare industry are paid the highest in India, as per Randstad Insights Salary Trends Report 2018. Salary is high In R&D and for specialist doctors. Bangalore is the highest paying city in India
• NPPA Chairman Bhupendra Singh transfer is fishy? Just about 10 days after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority released a report that revealed how four private hospitals indulged in profiteering; the Central government transferred the NPPA Chairman Bhupendra Singh and appointed him as the chairperson of the National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention. The move sparked anger and concern from healthcare activists, many of whom fear that the transfer was a result of pressure from the pharma and private hospital lobbies. Singh, who took charge in 2016, had played a key role in capping prices of coronary stents and knee implants to make them more affordable. Interestingly, Singh’s predecessor Injeti Srinivas too was transferred out of the NPPA less than a year after being appointed in 2014. During his stint, Srinivas had reportedly tried to bring cardiac and diabetic drugs under price control. Reference: http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/editorials/2018/mar/12/profiteering-and-the-pharma-lobby-1785710.html
• Vidhi Salgaocar Daughter of Dilip Singhvi to head the Consumer Healthcare business. Three years after son Aalok Shanghvi was inducted as emerging markets head of Sun. The announcement was made at the launch of its over-the-counter anti-fungal product ABZORB.
• Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli is sentenced to 7 years for securities fraud: 34-year-old entrepreneur dubbed the “Pharma Bro” for his ill-mannered behavior. He was found guilty in August of lying to investors in two failed hedged funds and cheating them out of millions. This sentence is unrelated to hiking of life saving drug price in 2015 . Shkreli became the face of pharmaceutical industry evil in 2015 when he increased by 5,000 percent the price of Daraprim, a previously cheap drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be fatal to people with the AIDS virus or other immune system disorders.
• US Food and Drug Administration officials inspected facility of Aurobindo:The US FDA had issued nine observations after inspection of the drug maker’s Unit 4 formulation.
Building used in the manufacturing, processing, packing or holding of drug products are not free from infestation by rodents, birds insects and other vermin. Employees engaged in the manufacture,process, packing and holding of drug products lack the training required to perform their assigned functions.
Appropriate controls are not exercised over computers or related systems to assure that changes in the master production and control records or other records are instituted only by authorised personnel
Equipment and utensils are not cleaned and maintained and sanitised at appropriate interval. Equipments are not of appropriate’ design
• LeucineTech, a Bengaluru-based, bio-technology startup: Started in 2017 by Vivek Gera and Abhishek Jha, created to address the critical issue of compliance in the global pharma industry, especially when it came to the strict regulations from the US-based regulatory body the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They came up with a product which integrates people, processes and technology to automate most workflows and takes away manual effort, reducing manual errors to help companies achieve compliance. Today their product is being used at two of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in India.
• 600 new applications for Pharma Institutes: India is set to witness a rush to set up pharma institutes. Of the 750 applications received by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) this year for setting up new institutes, about 600 alone are for pharma institutes. Until last year, majority of applications received were for new engineering institutes.
• CDSCO Intelligence Committee: The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), India’s central drug regulator, has set up a nine-member intelligence cell to track illegal activity in the country’s pharmaceutical sector.This includes gathering information on the medicines and cosmetics imported or exported against the law and investigating complaints related to medicine quality received from overseas regulatory agencies.
• Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has received final approval from the US health regulator for a generic version of Temovate Topical Solution used to treat certain scalp and skin conditions.