Indian Consumer Major, Dabur, To Produce Two New Ayurvedic Drugs

India’s fourth largest consumer goods company, Dabur, signed a deal on Wednesday to make two newdrugs for malaria and diabetes management based on the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda.

The $1.3 billion (fiscal 2015 revenues) Delhi company–which is one of the largest manufacturers of Ayurvedic medicines in the world–will launch the anti-malarial drug (Ayush-64) and the diabetes drug (Ayush-82) in the next six months.

The Ayurvedic formulations for these drugs were developed by the Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences–the apex body for Ayurvedic research in India. It’s a government agency that’s’ into pharmaceutical R&D and Ayurvedic drug development. Dabur will commercially produce the drugs.

The Ayurvedic council has been into drug development for the last four decades. It’s now working with industry leaders to commercialize drugs.

Dabur, for its part, is looking at partnerships in R&D relating to Ayurvedic medicines encompassing the entire spectrum from drug development to formulation development to pre-clinical and clinical studies.

Dabur will be supported by its extensive distribution network. (It sells through 6 million outlets across the country.) It’s also looking at marketing some of the products that the council has already developed.

Dabur, which is a leading producer of a diverse array of consumer goods from hair oil to honey to herbal supplements, has a rich history of Ayurveda. It was founded in 1884 by an Ayurvedic practitioner S.K. Burman. He started off by making medicines in his Kolkata home for widespread diseases of those times–like cholera and malaria. The company has many ancient Indian texts outlining these formulations. (It also has automated greenhouses in Nepal and Uttaranchal for growing rare herbs.)

Dabur’s chairman, Anand Burman, who has a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry, also has a keen interest in promoting Ayurvedic medicines. In fact, he used extracts from the Asian yew tree to develop anticancer drugs. His name is linked to about 40 patents.

Dabur’s announcement comes at a time when Ayurveda itself has become a popular buzz word. Take for instance,Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, founded by yoga guru Baba Ramdev in 2006 along with Acharya Bal Krishna. The company, which offers a range of products from toothpaste to whole-wheat noodles to biscuits, has become one of the fastest growing consumer goods companies in India.

Anu Raghunathan ,

 CONTRIBUTOR   |  

Forbes Asia | FEB 24, 2016 @ 08:35 AM

Free Drug Donation Pharmacy Opens in California

Allison Gilchrist, Associate Editor | Published Online: Wednesday, February 24, 2016

California’s first surplus prescription medication program recently opened its doors.  

Better Health Pharmacy is dedicated to collecting and dispensing unused, unopened, and unexpired medications from state-regulated facilities to patients for free. 

Up until now, these drug donation services have been housed in the Santa Clara Public Health Department Pharmacy. The program has dispensed more than 8700 prescriptions and generated a savings of more than $400,000 since the initiative began in 2015. 

From the program’s new home in San Jose, California, patients in need will be able to obtain their prescriptions at no cost and without co-pays. 

Drug donation pharmacies are a practical response to the increasing need for free or low-cost medications. Nearly 23% of US adults report missing or skipping prescriptions altogether solely because of cost.

In a press release, Pharmacist-in-Charge Khanh Pham, PharmD, said the new space will allow Better Health Pharmacy to “dispense a wider variety of medications, [and] we hope [it] will help us serve more county residents at this pharmacy.” 

While most medication types are eligible for distribution, California laws prevent the nonprofit pharmacy from dispensing certain controlled substances, including pain and anxiety medications like acetaminophen/hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (Oxycontin), and acetaminophen/oxycodone (Percocet).  

Better Health Pharmacy and other charitable drug initiatives are improving access to essential medications for low-income, uninsured patients in the United States.  

One such organization called the Dispensary of Hope has collected more than $150 million in medications from both manufacturers and health systems since its founding in 2003. 

Dispensary of Hope CEO Christopher Palombo, MA, MSHM, FACHE, told Pharmacy Times that participating manufacturers and health systems are motivated to donate by moral imperatives and economic incentives. 

“The reality we explain to manufacturers [and other donors] is it’s weird to destroy something while there are uninsured people who otherwise wouldn’t have the medications they need,” he said. Palombo asserted that there is “absolutely no opportunity cost” to donating the drugs.
The potential impact of charitable drug distribution is substantial. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 30 million individuals will remain uninsured after the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, and internal calculations from the Dispensary of Hope suggest that there are billions of dollars in surplus medicines each year.

SOURCE: PHARMACY TIMES

Einstein's gravitational waves 'seen' from black holes

Scientists are claiming a stunning discovery in their quest to fully understand gravity.

They have observed the warping of space-time generated by the collision of two black holes more than a billion light-years from Earth.

The international team says the first detection of these gravitational waves will usher in a new era for astronomy.

It is the culmination of decades of searching and could ultimately offer a window on the Big Bang.

The research, by the LIGO Collaboration, has been published today in the journalPhysical Review Letters.

The collaboration operates a number of labs around the world that fire lasers through long tunnels, trying to sense ripples in the fabric of space-time.

Gravitational waves: A triumph for big science

Expected signals are extremely subtle, and disturb the machines, known as interferometers, by just fractions of the width of an atom.

But the black hole merger was picked up by two widely separated LIGO facilities in the US.

The merger radiated three times the mass of the sun in pure gravitational energy.

"We have detected gravitational waves," Prof David Reitze, executive director of the LIGO project, told journalists at a news conference in Washington DC.

"It's the first time the Universe has spoken to us through gravitational waves. Up until now, we've been deaf."

Prof Karsten Danzmann, from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physicsand Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, is a European leader on the collaboration.

He said the detection was one of the most important developments in science since the discovery of the Higgs particle, and on a par with the determination of the structure of DNA.

"There is a Nobel Prize in it - there is no doubt," he told the BBC.

"It is the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves; it's the first ever direct detection of black holes and it is a confirmation of General Relativity because the property of these black holes agrees exactly with what Einstein predicted almost exactly 100 years ago."

• Gravitational waves are prediction of the Theory of General Relativity
• Their existence has been inferred by science but only now directly detected
• They are ripples in the fabric of space and time produced by violent events
• Accelerating masses will produce waves that propagate at the speed of light
• Detectable sources ought to include merging black holes and neutron stars
• LIGO fires lasers into long, L-shaped tunnels; the waves disturb the light
• Detecting the waves opens up the Universe to completely new investigations

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That view was reinforced by Prof Stephen Hawking, who is an expert on black holes. Speaking exclusively to BBC News, he said he believed that the detection marked a key moment in scientific history.

"Gravitational waves provide a completely new way at looking at the Universe. The ability to detect them has the potential to revolutionise astronomy. This discovery is the first detection of a black hole binary system and the first observation of black holes merging," he said.

"Apart from testing (Albert Einstein's theory of) General Relativity, we could hope to see black holes through the history of the Universe. We may even see relics of the very early Universe during the Big Bang at some of the most extreme energies possible."

Team member Prof Gabriela González, from Louisiana State University, said: "We have discovered gravitational waves from the merger of black holes. It's been a very long road, but this is just the beginning.

"Now that we have the detectors to see these systems, now that we know binary black holes are out there - we'll begin listening to the Universe. "

The LIGO laser interferometers in Hanford, in Washington, and Livingston, in Louisiana, were only recently refurbished and had just come back online when they sensed the signal from the collision. This occurred at 10.51 GMT on 14 September last year.

On a graph, the data looks like a symmetrical, wiggly line that gradually increases in height and then suddenly fades away.

"We found a beautiful signature of the merger of two black holes and it agrees exactly - fantastically - with the numerical solutions to Einstein equations... it looked too beautiful to be true," said Prof Danzmann.

SOURCE : http://www.bbc.com/    | 11 February 2016

This Assam Mechanic Made A 'Jugaad' Helicopter Using SUV Engines & Car Seats!

Chandra Siwakoti Sharma recently built a jugaad helicopter using car seats and two SUV engines and guess what he named it? Pawan Putra!

An automobile mechanic by profession, Sharma spent over 15 lakhs from his own savings to design the unique invention. A resident of Shyamjuli village in Assam, Sharma dropped out of school after third grade due to poor financial conditions. 

But determination drove the man like no other. He used all his savings and even sold his land to build his Pawan Putra, an invention that's awaiting clearance from authorities.

While speaking to The Hindustan Times, Sharma said, "My helicopter can fly, though not as fast as the ones in operation for civil or military duty. It can easily move at 50 kmph." 

The two-seater helicopter can fly 30 to 50 feet above the ground. Sharma built the helicopter as an answer to poor transportation to his village.

Victor Carpenter, the District Commissioner said that even though he wants to encourage inventions such as these, but since Sharma lacks a degree in aviation, his appeal will be forwaded to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to arrange a trial run of the helicopter.

The local residents of Sharma's village have also written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give his nod of approval. Sharma said he wanted to fly the helicopter but refrained from it as he didn't want to break any rules.

SOURCE : http://www.indiatimes.com/  | February 7, 2016

GATE 2016 – Four Major Changes Introduced by IISc

India: Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering GATE 2016 has some changes by Indian Institute of Science IISc, Bangalore for this academic year admissions into Master of Engineering Degree programs.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore takes complete authority for conducting Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) entrance exam every year. In general this is an entrance test that is conducted all over India for admissions into various Engineering course for Post Graduation (Masters). Sources from officials say that this exam among Indian Engineering graduate students will be held from January 30 till February 7, 2016.

As this is huge thing to be done, IISc is coordinating with 7 IITs that are present in the country. It is known that at Mumbai, Delhi, Kanpur, Roorkee, Madras, Kharagpur and Guwahati, the seven IITs of India are located and IISc in joint administration with all these institutes is conducting this entrance exam.

Students are notified that GATE 2016 online registrations will be started from September 1 to October 1. And exam center can be changed on or before November 20. From December 17 onwards, students can download their hall tickets from official website, www.gate.iisc.ernet.in.

All the B.E/ B,Tech/ B.Pharmacy/ M.Sc/ M.A/ MCA graduates from any recognized university can apply to GATE 2016 and finish exam for Post Graduation study. Based on requirement from students, IISc has changed some of its rules to attend GATE 2016 entrance exam. The organization kindly requested all the students to have a look on it before attempting the test.

Changes Made in GATE 2016

• Syllabus has been changed for GATE 2016 to that of previous year.
• Total number of Papers are 23 including Petroleum Engineering (PE) (Earlier it was only 22).
• Online virtual calculator will be provided at GATE official website, no need to carry your own calculators.
• Answer Key will be provided in a short time and little amount of fee will be charged for it.

Online Registrations: September 1 to October 1

Exam Center Changing Option Last Date: November 2

GATE Hall Ticket Availability: December 17

SOURCE: http://indread.com/8579/gate-2016-iisc-changes