The Punjab Government today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it had initiated steps to reduce the prices of cancer drugs.

The Annual Plan for Rajasthan for 2013-14 was finalised at Rs.40,500 crore at a meeting here on Wednesday between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister Ashok

Even as the Drugs and Cosmetics Act is not yet ready with a penal provision to punish entities for illegal clinical trials, the Centre has conceded before the Supreme Court that at least 80 people have lost their lives due to such trials in the last seven years.

Pointing out that the ministry of health was trying to get the “deficiency” relating to the penal provisions removed by replacing the old law with a 2013 amendment Bill, the Centre said it intended to table the amendments in the Budget session of Parliament.

Move comes in the wake of repeated slamming by the SC and the Parliamentary committee on health and family welfare

The government is considering framing a separate policy for the approval of medicines, as well as clinical trials conducted in India - in a move that is expected to strengthen regulation on the pharmaceutical industry and ensure patient safety in the country. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has constituted a committee, headed by Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, advisor in the health ministry, to formulate a policy "for approval of new drugs, clinical trials and banning of drugs".

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria said on Monday that strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely. The International health agencies also highlighted an annual need of at least US$ 1.6 billion in international funding for treatment and prevention of the disease.

The WHO said that if fully funded, by 2016 over 90% of TB patients estimated to have MDR-TB will be detected and provided treatment in seven high-MDR-TB burden countries including India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Ukraine and South Africa.

Researchers discovered the elusive anti-cancer property of vitamin E that has long been presumed to exist, but difficult to find

Vitamin E found in vegetable oils, cereals, meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables, can help prevent cancer by inhibiting the activation of an enzyme that is essential for tumour cell survival, scientists say. Researchers discovered the elusive anti-cancer property of vitamin E that has long been presumed to exist, but difficult to find.

Cosmetics and drugs cannot be treated at par with food articles when it comes to labelling them with a red or a green mark to distinguish on the basis of vegetarian and non-vegetarian ingredients.

The state Cabinet today gave its approval to introducing the Punjab State Cancer and Drug Addiction Treatment Infra Structure Fund Bill, 2013, in the coming Budget session of the state assembly. The Bill aims at creating a special fund for setting up infrastructure, including equipment, in selected hospitals for treatment of cancer as well as drug addiction.

To facilitate NRIs (non-resident Indians) in getting their properties vacated, the Cabinet gave the go-ahead to the Punjab Rent (Amendment) Bill, 2013. The Bill will be tabled in the assembly during the Budget session. All properties on rent under an agreement will come under the purview of this new law.

Presenting his last budget before the assembly elections later this year, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Wednesday doled out sops for farmers, elderly, journalists, employees.

According to a new report, more than half of Suffolk County, Long Island's medical and health facilities flush their unused medications, which then wind up in the water supply.