Budget 2016: Jaitley announces 3,000 new drug stores, dialysis centres

"For the better availability of generic medicines in the country, especially in the rural areas, the government has decided to open 3,000 new gereric medicines stores," Arun Jaitley said, presenting the Union Budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.

IANS  |  01 March 2016, 8:33 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The government will set up 3,000 new generic medicine stores across the country to tackle the shortage of drugs in rural areas, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

"For the better availability of generic medicines in the country, especially in the rural areas, the government has decided to open 3,000 new gereric medicines stores," said Jaitley, presenting the Union Budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.

He also announced the launch of a National Dialysis Programme to address the high costs involved in the renal dialysis processes.

Under the programme every district hospital will have the facilities of renal dialysis, so that people do not have to travel to the expensive hospitals of metro cities, he said.

At least 2,000 new dialysis centres will be started in the country under the programme.

SOURCE: http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/health-and-beauty/pharmacy/budget-2016-jaitley-announces-3000-new-drug-stores-dialysis-centres/51203603

QUALITY OF INDIAN DRUGS

P A Francis Wednesday, March 02, 2016, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

Indian pharmaceutical industry has been passing through a difficult phase for the last five years with its export prospects getting threatened on account of regulatory actions by the US Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) and European Medical Agency (EMA). Regulatory inspections and actions by these agencies and consequent drop in exports have been hitting the profitability of India’s top large and medium scale pharma companies as their profits mainly come from generic exports to these countries. India supplies more than 30 per cent of the generic medicines sold in the US and nearly 25 per cent sold in the European Union. There has been a steady increase in issuance of warning letters and import alerts by the US FDA and EMA on Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities with regulators’ increasing concern over the safety of drugs imported into their countries. The US FDA alone issued 15 warning letters to Indian pharma companies during 2015. Between 2008 and 2015, US FDA has issued around 50 warning letters on Indian companies and out of these, around 40 per cent were converted into import alerts. India has more than 600 US FDA approved manufacturing facilities located in different parts of the country. Warning letters are issued after regular inspections of the stringent manufacturing standards laid down by these agencies. Quality issues arising out of regulatory actions by the US FDA and EMA have been an issue of serious discussion among the industry bodies and the concerned government departments for some time. Such repeated actions by the world’s top regulatory authorities not only affect India’s generic exports but also the reputation of India as a global supplier of quality generics at reasonable prices. Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, a body of 20 large research based Indian pharma companies, has been addressing this issue quite seriously. It recently held a meeting of representatives from US FDA, UK MHRA, Drug Controller General of India and Indian drug exporters. Main complaints from regulators ranged from issues over hygiene and maintenance to concerns over documentation and data management. There is a growing feeling among the regulators that some Indian companies are still not taking enough steps to identify risks and failures at their facilities even after issue of several warning letters. Regulatory officials from the US, EU and UK at the meeting therefore said that they would step up the number of inspections in India, and are expecting better cooperation from the exporting companies and Indian authorities. That is indeed a legitimate expectation and Indian pharma exporters have to take this matter seriously considering the price these countries are offering to Indian products. SOURCE: http://www.pharmabiz.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=93796&sid=3

9 pharmacy students awarded Schott Fiolax Scholarship

In the second year of Schott Fiolax Scholarship Programme, Schott awarded nine scholarships to meritorious students pursuing bachelors (B. Pharmacy) and masters (M. Pharmacy) degrees in pharmacy in Mumbai and Gujarat. Seven B. Pharmacy students-- Rachana Subhash Kelkar, Deepika Ratanlal Patel, Rehman Irfan Jirait, Rupali N. Madapura, Vrishali Salian, Malvika Rangu Chandnani and Deep Raithatha, and two M. Pharmacy students-- Shachi Vipulkumar Bheda and Khushboo Patel were awarded gift cheques of Rs. 25000/-each by Sundeep Prabhu, vice president sales and marketing, Schott Glass India Pvt. Ltd during a special award ceremony. The winners have also been offered an exclusive tour of Schott Glass India’s pharmaceutical tubing plant in Jambusar district, Gujarat. After the successful launch of the scholarship programme last year wherein Schott awarded financial aid of Rs. 25,000 each to six candidates from Mumbai, the number of recipients was increased to nine. “Due to a very encouraging response from students and faculty, we decided to expand the programme both geographically and in number of students supported. We feel proud that a second time in a row, this year, most scholarships have been bagged by young women pursuing B. Pharmacy and M. Pharmacy,” said Prabhu. “With the increased demand for patient services and the growing number of prescriptions filled each year in India, we feel it is our responsibility to recognize the outstanding academic performance, dedicated commitment and community service of the most promising pharmacists of India,” Prabhu shared. “We feel honoured to encourage qualified individuals to fulfill open positions in the field of pharmacy and to leverage their skills during their academic progression through this programme.” The process of selecting candidates for the Schott Fiolax Scholarship Programme 2016 was completed in December 2015, in which nine meritorious students were shortlisted from various colleges in Mumbai and Gujarat. The screening process took a total of six months to complete, with more than 100 applicants who were able to clear the challenging eligibility criteria of passing 2nd year with more than 70 percent in case of B. Pharmacy students and on the basis of outstanding research for M. Pharmacy students. SOURCE: PHARMABIZ

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 thenew 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

MH-CET for medicine, engineering on May 5

The government of Maharashtra has issued the notification of the common entrance test for all health sciences, engineering and pharmacy for academic year 2016-17. The single common entrance test for the courses will be held on May 5, 2016 and application for the same has to be done through the online process only.

According to the notification issued by Aseem Gupta, competent authority and commissioner, State Common Entrance Test Cell, Maharashtra state, the cell would be conducting the CET for admission to all health sciences, BVSC and AH, engineering and pharmacy first year degree courses at all district headquarters of Maharashtra on Thursday, May 5. With the government deciding to conduct a single combined CET for medical and engineering courses, the tests are being conducted by the SCETC unlike in the past when the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) conducted the entrance tests for health sciences while the Directorate of Technical Education conducted the tests for engineering and pharmacy courses.

The notification has further said that the information brochure of the MHT-CET 2016 regarding procedure for filling up online application form will be available on both the DMER and MHTCET website, the online application process that will start from March 1 will only be available on the MHTCET site which is http://mhtcet2016.co.in.

Mr Gupta said that students should go through the preliminary information given on the website before submitting the online application form. “Detailed rules and regulations of the examination and the admission process will be published on the above mentioned websites in due course,” said Mr Gupta.

Going by past records of the entrance tests, an estimated 4 lakh students are expected to appear for the tests. Under the single CET format, the physics and chemistry papers will remain common while those students aspiring to secure admission in medical colleges will have to opt for biology as the third paper while those looking for admission to engineering have to opt for maths.

Feb 29, 2016 | Age Correspondent | Mumbai