Child rights panel seeks report on measles deaths in Keralam’s Malappuram The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has registered a suo motu case following the deaths of two children from measles in Malappuram district. A 10-month-old from Valavannur near Kottakkal and an 18-month-old from Ponmala near Malappuram died after contracting measles. The Commission has sought detailed reports from the Women and Child Development department and the District Medical Officer. The reports have to be submitted in 15 days. The Commission will examine whether the children had received measles vaccines in time and whether there were any lapses...

He sought a national study comparing the printed MRP, manufacturer/importer price, hospital’s net acquisition price, and the price ultimately billed to patients for selected high-value medicines, medical devices, and consumables. Karnataka’s Health Minister U.T. Khader said that while the existing MRP framework prevents medicines from being sold above the printed MRP, it does not address situations where the MRP itself has little relation to the actual institutional transaction price. Pointing out that high-cost medicines used to treat cancer, kidney ailments, and AIDS are being sold at prices up to “70 times higher” than the rates at which dealers and stockists...

New Delhi: The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is reviewing its regulatory framework to identify gaps and stop the illegal diversion of pharmaceutical drugs containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. The move follows the 10th apex level National Committee for Coordination on Drug Trafficking (NCORD) meeting held in June under the chairmanship of Union home minister Amit Shah, where the CDSCO was tasked with addressing regulatory gaps to control illegal diversion of drugs by March 2027. The vision document on drug control (2026-2029) sets out a coordinated framework to address the evolving drug trafficking and drug abuse in the...

Pilibhit: A joint inquiry by the chief medical officer and city magistrate has found alleged statutory violations at several private diagnostic centres and nursing homes in Pilibhit district. A report was submitted to the district magistrate on Wednesday, recommending immediate sealing of non-compliant centres, cancellation of unauthorised registrations on govt portals, and departmental and legal action against the doctors and management concerned. The inquiry followed a complaint submitted to the governor’s office on Sept 2 by Pilibhit resident and PhD student Sumit Saxena against Dr Ravikant Mishra, a contractual, non-PG junior resident at Autonomous State Medical College (ASMC). Saxena accused...

According to the ministry, the scheme has facilitated the establishment of domestic manufacturing capabilities for a range of high-end medical devices that were earlier predominantly imported. New Delhi: The Product Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for medical devices has given a boost to local manufacturing of high-end medical technology devices, including MRI machines, CT Scanner and heart valves, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said. According to the ministry, production of 57 medical devices commenced under the scheme that were earlier predominantly imported. These include MRI machines, CT scanners, Cath Labs, Linear Accelerators, C-Arms, mammography machines, ultrasound systems,...

The four were arrested on September 24 by a special investigation team probing the alleged unauthorised circulation of the confidential question paper for financial gain, the Crime Branch said The MumbaiCrime Branch arrested four more people — two candidates and two alleged middlemen — on September 24, 2026, from Sangli, Buldhana and Navi Mumbai in connection with the alleged leak of the MPSC Drug Inspector recruitment examination question paper, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 11, police said on Friday (Septmber 25, 2026). The case was registered at Cuffe Parade police station on August 25 and...

Union minister for health and family welfare and chemicals and fertilizers, Jagat Prakash Nadda, will commemorate eight years of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and five years of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) at Arogya Manthan 2026, being organised by the National Health Authority (NHA), at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The programme will feature a series of thematic deliberations focusing on key aspects of health assurance and digital health. The common session on “NHCX for Streamlining Health Insurance” will deliberate on the role of the National Health Claims Exchange in enabling standardised, streamlined and technology-driven...

BENGALURU: Karnataka health minister UT Khader Monday ordered suspension of an assistant drug controller for failure to lock the wholesale pharmacy owned by alleged kingpin of Bengaluru’s drug racket even after his arrest and spurious drugs were seized from its premises. Officer Omkareshwar failed to act against Krupa Health Care, the wholesale pharmacy at Minerva Circle owned by Veeresh Kumar Jain, who was arrested by Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the drugs racket. “Once the accused was arrested, it was the officer’s duty to seize the stock and lock the pharmacy. When we checked, we found it was still open,”...

Pimpri Chinchwad resident Prakash Guru was arrested after a raid on his store led to the seizure of 23 packets of ‘Goree Beauty Cream’. A shop owner in Maharashtra’s Pimpri Chinchwad has been arrested for allegedly selling duplicate packs of Pakistan-made ‘Goree Beauty Cream’. The import of Pakistan-made products has been banned in India. The Anti-Terrorist Branch of the Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested Prakash Manoharlal Guru, 39, a resident of Pimpri, on Wednesday after a raid on his store led to the seizure of 23 packets of the cream, with ‘Made in Pakistan’ labels. The development comes at a time...

Green dot or red dot? Soaps, shampoos and toothpaste to reveal if they are veg or non-veg That green dot you usually look for on a food packet could soon have a new place to watch out for: your bathroom shelf. From soap and shampoo to toothpaste, cosmetics and other toiletries, products sold in India will now have to carry a symbol indicating whether they are of vegetarian or non-vegetarian origin. The Centre notified the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Fourth Amendment Rules, 2026 on September 21. The rules came into force the same day. So, what do the dots actually...

The Drugs Control Department has seized counterfeit rabies vaccine worth about ₹2 lakh from a firm in Chandni Chowk’s Bhagirath Palace, the Delhi government said on Tuesday. Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh said, “We have zero tolerance for those selling spurious medicines. Rabies is a serious, often fatal disease, and no compromise on vaccine quality is acceptable. We have directed strict action under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act against everyone involved, including the suppliers based outside Delhi.” According to a statement from the Minister’s office, the Drugs Control Department searched three premises in Bhagirath Palace and found 481 units of...

The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, organised an “Ayurveda Public Awareness Rally” today to mark the 11th Ayurveda Day–2026. The rally was organised with the objective of promoting Ayurveda, propagating its principles and creating greater public awareness about the role of Ayurveda in healthy living and holistic healthcare. The rally commenced at 9:15 AM from the DDA Gate and proceeded towards Gate No. 3 of the All India Institute of Ayurveda. Faculty members, non-teaching staff, Ph.D. scholars, PG scholars and other members of the Institute participated...

Scientists from UKHSA, the University of Oxford and a collaboration of academic institutions have used bacterial genome sequencing to understand why the meningococcal disease outbreak in Kent earlier this year was so severe. The research presented this week at the UKHSA Conference 2026, underlines why the UK’s world-leading genomic surveillance and rapid outbreak response capabilities are more important than ever. The outbreak in March 2026 was linked to a single nightclub in Canterbury over one weekend and saw 21 people diagnosed with invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in one week. All those affected required hospital treatment, nine needed intensive care, and...

‘It is very surprising that the authorities who are supposed to take action on this are silent,’ says Bench Terming it a "broad daylight dacoity" against patients, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) expressed shock over the overpricing of essential cancermedicines, noting that one drug carried an MRP of ₹27,000 despite being supplied to retailers for ₹2,700. Price cap on cancer drugs increase to tackle shortage "It is very surprising that the authorities who are supposed to take action on this are silent," a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said. The observations came when the...

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) found one spurious and 220 not of standard quality (NSQ) drug samples from a batch tested randomly as part of the August drug surveillance exercise, according to the drugs regulator’s NSQ and Spurious Drug Alert issued on Tuesday. The failed samples during routine regulatory surveillance included 29 tested by the Central Drugs Laboratories and 191 identified by the State Drugs Testing Laboratories. NSQ drugs are those that fail to meet quality standards or specifications, including those pertaining to labelling, dissolution, weight uniformity, and sterility. Besides NSQs, some quality-related defective products are also categorised...

The action follows the department’s investigation into a large-scale unlicenced drug repacking and relabelling racket uncovered at a farmhouse in Bengaluru South district’s Bidadi on August 18. The Karnataka Food Safety and Drugs Administration (FSDA) has cancelled the licences of 16 pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers and suspended those of eight others, including the licence of multinational firm Pfizer’s depot in Nelamangala, in connection with the ongoing investigation into the alleged distribution and sale of spurious drugs. The action follows the department’s investigation into a large-scale unlicenced drug repacking and relabelling racket uncovered at a farmhouse in Bengaluru South district’s Bidadi...

Patients for Patient Safety Foundation (PFPSF) Partners with CAHO to RollOut an Excellence Program New Delhi: Thanks to some well-meaning organizations, patients are going to be lord of all they survey in Indian hospitals in times to come. Excellence will be judged on the basis of how friendly accredited hospitals are with patients. Patients for Patient Safety Foundation (PFPSF) has partnered with CAHO to rollout an Excellence Program to judge them on the new yardstick. CAHO is the name of the revolution that is catching up fast in India for ensuring patients’ safety and improving quality of care . Very...

Health is a human right – yet not everyone can access the health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. Primary health care (PHC) provides a whole-of-society approach to achieving universal health coverage, putting people and communities at the centre of health systems. Despite nearly 50 years of global commitment to PHC, implementation remains fragmented. We need to be clear on what PHC means and how to put it into practice. As WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has reflected, despite its importance, “Primary health care is one of the most misunderstood concepts in public...

Bengaluru: The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has called for stronger scientific evidence, safety monitoring and translation of research into market-ready technologies to improve the credibility and adoption of Ayurveda. Speaking at the National Symposium on Pharmacovigilance in Ayurveda at the Central Ayurveda Research Institute (CARI), Bengaluru, CCRAS Director General Dr Rabinarayan Acharya stressed the need for scientific validation of innovations and sustained efforts to strengthen pharmacovigilance in Ayurveda. The two-day symposium, held on Thursday and Friday, brought together researchers, physicians and experts to discuss safety and evidence-based Ayurvedic care, particularly for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Acharya traced...

The Team Meticulously averted the Risk of Thrombosis, Husband was Donor Delhi/NCR : Doctors at Yashoda Medicity have successfully performed a high-risk kidney transplant in a 28-year-old woman with Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome (APLA), a serious autoimmune disorder that significantly increases the risk of potentially life- threatening blood clots, who also had Donor Specific Antibodies (DSA) resulting from previous sensitisation. The transplant, performed on 18 August 2026, involved an ABO-compatible kidney donated by the woman’s husband and required extensive preparation to manage the risk of blood clotting as well as potential immunological complications. The patient, Mrs. Morifat Rashid, was diagnosed with...