The government on Thursday issued the long-pending Drug Price Control Order, paving the way for the implementation of national pharmaceutical pricing policy, which will lead to a reduction in prices of medicines on an average by 20-25%, and in some lifesaving ones, by up to 80%.

Prices of 652 formulations under 27 therapeutic areas like anti-allergic (cetrizine), cardiac (aten), gastro-intestinal medicines (ocid), pain-killers (paracetamol) and anti-diabetic drugs (insulin) are expected to come down. Others in the list include anti-fungal, anti-tuberculosis, anti-leprosy, anti-hypertensives and cancer drugs. In certain cancer drugs, prices may come down by up to 80%.

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The department of pharmaceuticals on Thursday notified the Drug Price Control Order 2013 that would reduce prices of 348 essential medicines.

The new order authorises the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to regulate prices of essential medicines as listed in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 2011.

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In astrology and janampatri-crazy India, a Hyderabad-based company called Mapmygenome has launched GenomePatri, a scientifically-validated personal health horoscope charted by mining one's genetic profile.

Mapmygenome's cleverly-named GenomePatri is only one of a rash of recently-launched personal genetic mapping services. In the past months, a proliferation of Indian companies are offering prognostic tests to decode DNA based on a simple saliva sample and lay bare the health risks a person could have inherited from parents and ancestors. For a fee ranging from Rs 9,999-25,000, these companies analyse a person's predisposition to diseases, risks accrued from diet and lifestyle factors and drug responses.

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Even as there are reports of apps attacking data on smartphones and siphoning them off, there is the other side of the matter — they can also save lives and increase health awareness.

When Dr Keerti Tewari, a bureaucrat, got breast cancer in 2007, she fumbled through mind-boggling information on the internet for guidance. Today, she’s a survivor who has given inputs for a breast cancer app. She says, “If there was an app in 2007, it would have saved me a lot of anxiety.”

As more people opt for mobiles, the world is on the cusp of a medical revolution. Companies are making medical apps to analyse urine, measure sleep patterns, diagnose ear infections, see glucose levels and even do ultrasounds.

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An effective model on providing home-based care to newborns, which was devised by a doctor from Maharashtra and is showing good results in other countries, is yet to be implemented in entirety in the state. Initiated by public health expert Dr Abhay Bang, the model has shown success in the remote Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region.

Now, the ‘State of the World’s Mothers’ which is yet to be released by international non-profit organisation, Save the Children, has lauded this model.
It has stated that some of the world’s poorest countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Malawi have adapted Dr Bang’s model and achieved remarkable results. However, India, which recognised the model as being worthy of implementation in 2008, is dragging its feet in implementing it.

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India has the dubious distinction of recording the most first-day deaths of children. Every year, 3,09,000 children die on the day they are born in India. It accounts for 29% of all the first-day deaths globally, the highest for any country, according to the latest ‘State of the World’s Mothers’ report released by Save the Children, an NGO.

Early neonatal mortality comprises of child deaths within the first seven days of being born. Two thirds of all early newborn deaths occur in just 10 countries — Nigeria, DR Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and China. Four of these are in South Asia. “India, with both a large population and a high early neonatal mortality rate, is home to more than 3,09,000 first-day deaths,” the report said.

According to the government of India’s sample registration survey in 2011, for every 1,000 live births in India, 24 children die within the first seven days of birth. Madhya Pradesh surpasses the national average with the early neonatal mortality rate standing at 32. Uttar Pradesh and Orissa are next at 30. While Maharashtra has managed to duck the national average with its early neonatal mortality rate standing at 15, it still has a long way to go to reduce the burden. Kerala with 5 newborn deaths per 1,000 live births has by far the most ideal rate of early neonatal mortality.

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Putting proven helpful information into the hands of caregivers for children with cerebral palsy, autism and other neuro-developmental disabilities is the goal of a Goa-based project that was awarded a Canadian $100,000 seed grant last month.

Dr Vivek Vajaratkar of NGO Sangath in Goa was awarded an international Stars in Global Health grant by Grand Challenges Canada for the innovative idea 'Inform', a mobile health (or m-health) platform for improving functional outcomes for children with impairments through community health workers in India.

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The Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) has launched a nationwide initiative to check the rise of hormonal imbalance-related diseases among Indian women.

A study has found a fivefold increase in disorders related to the endocrine system among Indian women when compared to the worldwide data. The endocrine system is a collection of glands that secrete hormones.

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Shwaas, a support group for parents of asthmatic children initiated by city-based Chest Research Foundation, is helping parents address their worries. World Asthma Day is observedon May7.

“To see one’s child gasping for breath or coughing incessantly, losing out on sleep, missing school, missing games and the little pleasures of life is heart wrenching for a parent,” said Monica Barne, head, training programme division, Chest ResearchFoundation.

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Patients suffering liver failure may not have to wait without end to get a matching donor anymore.

Transplant surgeon claim those with mismatched donors can also undergo the life-saving procedure now with the help of a novel technique involving suppression of antibodies responsible for rejection of incompatible organs with the help of plasma exchange and drug therapy.

It has been used successfully to treat three patients at Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon. Now that all the three patients are doing fine, many others in the hospital want to follow suit.

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The number of mobile health (mHealth) initiatives in India is likely to grow thanks to the robust mobile technology infrastructure and the launch of 4G. Changing disease profiles, increased adoption of smart phones, advancements in mobile technology and greater focus on health and wellness are factors that will contribute to the growth of mHealth in India, says a report by Frost & Sullivan.

Currently, there are more than 20 initiatives for mHealth in the country. It is still a fledgling concept and most of the initiatives undertaken are only a couple of years old. The market has very few successful business models and it will be at least two to five years before a successful model emerges. This is due to the large disparity in mobile infrastructure in rural and urban India, the report said.

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Though Maharashtra leads in the number of corneas taken from the deceased due to the high number of donations, almost 70% of the corneas taken are of no use to the visually challenged in the state, health minister Suresh Shetty said in the state legislative council in a written reply to a question posed by MLCs.

Replying to a question on whether the government didn’t have the machinery to harvest corneas to help the visually challenged, Shetty said the state had enough machinery but all of last year and till January 2013 as many as 5,587 corneas were taken of which only 2,033 (37%) could be transplanted. Around 1,622 were used for training and research, and around 1,932 were of no use for various reasons.

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Just three months ago, Raju and Sumati Mullick were thinking hard how to end their wretched lives. It wasn’t just their younger daughter Sanjana’s leukemia that was killing them. The family, in trying to meet the cost of her treatment, had lost everything they had earned and were in deep debt. Then there were the two other children they had to fend for.

The couple from Madhubani district in Bihar had already quit farming in their native village to look for a job in Delhi so that they could be close to Sanjana. The best they could do was work as daily wage labourers. Then, as all hope ended, a cancer support group volunteered to bear the cost of treatment of the eight-year-old girl.

“Sanjana has developed infection again and is admitted at AIIMS,” Sumati said on Monday. “She is not able to eat and can barely speak. My husband and I have not been able to go to work for over a week now due to the deterioration in her condition. We have almost no money left.”

The mainstay of treatment for acute leukemia, the type of blood cancer Sanjana suffers from, is chemotherapy. Doctors say treatment costs can vary between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh in private hospitals. In government-run centres, though, it can be availed for free. But invariably there are additional costs which patients have to bear.

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The Supreme Court on Monday rejected pharma giant Novartis AG’s plea to preserve its patent over a life-saving cancer drug, Glivec, drawing a huge sigh of relief from thousands of patients in India and in dozens of developing countries as the fear of an almost 15-fold escalation of drug costs receded. It is the biggest setback for multinational pharma companies, which have been denied patent protection for a series of life-saving drugs in recent years.

Invented in 1991, Glivec is a miracle cure for a type of blood cancer called chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In this form of cancer, certain bone marrow cells go rogue and produce excessive white blood cells, causing mild fatigue and hip pain initially, but slipping into an out-of-control crisis of zooming platelet and white cell counts. It used to be fatal, but with Glivec, the survival rate is over 95%. Imanitib, the active component, is on the National Essential Drugs List in India.

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There has been an increase in incidence of autism over the past two decades.

In the early 90s, parents in the city reported only a handful of cases to the Spastics Society of India (now Vidya Sagar). Doctors confirmed two or three children with the neurological disability in a year at the time, experts said on Monday, the eve of World Autism Day.

Fast forward to 2012, and the numbers increase exponentially: At least one child was diagnosed with autism every week.

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India’s burgeoning population appears to be both a problem and an advantage. Very soon, the southern states may stare at an un-Indian situation: a shrinking populace, owing to a sharp dip in the fertility rate of women.

Analyzing the 2011 Census data, the Population Research Centre of the Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change found that many southern districts, a significant number of them in Karnataka, have recorded fertility rates lower than the national average. The study says turnaround will happen soon.

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The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG's attempt to win patent protection for its cancer drug Glivec, a serious blow to Western pharmaceutical firms who are increasingly focusing on India to drive sales.

The decision also sets a benchmark for several intellectual property disputes in India, where many patented drugs are unaffordable for most of its 1.2 billion people.

India's domestic drugs market is the 14th largest globally, but with annual growth of 13-14 per cent and the world's second biggest population, it has massive potential at a time when traditional developed markets have slowed down.

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More than two years after announcing that all 408 charitable hospitals across the state will be made to post details of beds reserved under the Indigent Patient Fund (IPF) scheme online, the State government and Charity Commissioner (CC) seems to be passing the buck. While the State Health Minister claims it is CC’s responsibility to implement the provisions of the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, the CC says the hospitals are not willing to part with the information

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Kinnari Gupta, a 29-year-old program manager with an IT major, was enjoying a successful run professionally and is set to tie the knot in November. But some seven months ago, she started experiencing anxiety and mood swings. She also began losing her night sleep at least 2-3 times a week. Her menstrual cycle, too, became irregular.

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The state health department is set to screen over 1.95 crore children below 18 years of age across the state and provide free follow-up treatments if required through district and tertiary level hospitals as part of a new scheme under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Called the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), the scheme, with an estimated state budget of Rs 130 crore for 2013-14, will be formally launched at Palghar, a tribal block in Thane, on Wednesday.

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