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In Hospital Where 31 Died In 48 Hours, MP Makes Dean Clean Filthy Toilet

Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MP Hemant Patil is seen spraying water into the toilet as the dean cleans it with a wiper.

Mumbai: A dirty toilet in a government hospital in Maharashtra’s Nanded, where 31 people have died in 48 hours, was cleaned by no less than the dean after an MP from the ruling Shiv Sena instructed him to do so.
After the deaths made national headlines, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MP Hemant Patil visited the Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital on Tuesday and took stock of the situation there. On spotting a filthy toilet, Mr Patil caught hold of the hospital’s dean, Shyamrao Wakode, and asked him to clean it.

Videos show the MP standing and holding a pipe as the dean empties the toilet, putting a container, a bottle, and a toilet brush on a window. Mr Patil can then be seen spraying water into the toilet as Mr Wakode, armed with a wiper, directs streams of dirty water into the commode.

On Monday, the hospital had reported 24 deaths in 24 hours and the number rose to 31 in 48 hours on Tuesday. The condition of 71 patients is said to be critical.

Mr Wakode had, on Monday, rejected allegations of medical negligence and said there was no shortage of medicines or doctors. He had said the patients were given proper care, but did not respond to the treatment.

The opposition has trained its guns on the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra, which is composed of the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), the BJP and the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

“The BJP government spends thousands of crores on publicity, but there is no money to buy medicines of children,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asked in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge posted in Hindi on Monday, “The news of the death of 24 patients, including 12 infants, in a civil hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra, is extremely painful, serious and worrying. It is being said that these patients died due to a lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023, in which 18 patients lost their lives.”

The Congress chief demanded a detailed investigation and strict punishment for the culprits.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/nanded-hospital-deaths-maharashtra-hospital-in-hospital-where-31-died-in-48-hours-mp-makes-dean-clean-filthy-toilet-4445671

13 deaths, over 40,000 infections reported at GMC Jammu due to rabies

With two deaths, 7,864 people get infected this year

Over 40,000 people have been reported infected with rabies at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu in the last four years. Thirteen people have died of the infection in this period.

“Between 2019 and 2023, a total of 40,505 rabies infections and 13 deaths have been reported at GMC Jammu,” said Dr Rajeev K Gupta, Professor and Head of the Department of Community Medicine at Government Medical College Jammu.

According to him, 10,952 infections and 5 deaths were reported in 2019, and 6,314 infections were reported in the following year without any deaths at GMC Jammu. In the next year (2021), 6,201 infections and 3 deaths were reported, while in 2022, 9,174 infections and 3 deaths occurred.

With the highest number of 952 infections reported in September this year, a total of 7,864 people have been reported infected with the viral infection in 2023.

Regarding the month-wise breakdown of infections and deaths this year, 985 cases were reported in January, 941 in February, 925 in March, 815 in April, 882 in May, 843 in June, 823 in July, 698 in August, and 952 as of September. One death each was reported in July and September.

Reports indicated that rabies claims approximately 21,000 lives in the country annually and 59,000 deaths in 150 countries globally, with stray dogs being the main vectors of the infection. India has an estimated population of 30-60 million stray dogs.

According to Dr Raheel, who consults patients at the Anti-Rabies section of Government Medical College Jammu, most infections occur due to stray dog and cat bites, which, by and large, remain unvaccinated in Jammu District. Monkey, horse, sheep, goat, and rat bites also contribute to the infection, he said.

Dr Raheel also pointed out that a high percentage of rabies deaths occur in children under 15 years of age, as they often fail to report animal bites to their parents or healthcare experts on time.

Source : https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/13-deaths-over-40000-infections-reported-at-gmc-jammu-due-to-rabies

New global action pledge to end TB by 2030

© PAHO/Joshua Cogan A TB patient recovers at home in Colombia.

The document lays out ambitious new targets for the next five years that include reaching 90 per cent of people with TB prevention and care services, providing social benefit packages to those who have the disease, and licensing at least one new vaccine.

TB is the second leading infectious killer worldwide after COVID-19, with some 1.6 million deaths in 2021 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The only available vaccine is more than a century old.

Defeating a killer

“Why, after all the progress we have made – from sending man to the moon, to bringing the world to our fingertips – have we been unable to defeat a preventable and curable disease that kills over 4,400 people a day?” said the President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis.

TB has afflicted humanity for millennia, going by several names including the white plague and consumption.

It is caused by bacteria and mainly affects the lungs, and treatment is with antibiotics. A WHO council established to facilitate the development and equitable use of new vaccines met for the first time this week.

A personal commitment

Stamping out the TB epidemic is among the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the roadmap for a more just and green global future by the end of the decade.

Five years ago, countries set the target of delivering TB treatment to 40 million people, reaching 34 million. They also aimed to provide 30 million with preventive treatment but fell short by half.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed called for action to tackle the main drivers of TB – poverty, undernutrition, lack of access to healthcare, the prevalence of HIV infections, diabetes, mental health, and smoking.

Stigma surrounding the disease also needs to be reduced so that people can get help without fear of discrimination, she added, while governments must ensure universal health coverage that includes TB screening, prevention and treatment.

Ms. Mohammed also shared her own reason for supporting the global fight.

“My commitment is my personal story: losing my father to TB at 50, 37 years ago this week,” she said. “Today we have the tools to diagnose, treat, and what we need right now is a vaccine. Let’s end TB now. It is possible.”

Stigma fuels death

Mongolian author Handaa Rea, who has survived the disease, urged world leaders to “treat TB not only medically but also socially.”

She has written about her own experience of TB-related stigma, discrimination that she said is prevalent in many developing countries, resulting in “hundreds of thousands of people” delaying seeking treatment.

The consequences of stigma are “more enhanced” for women and girls who are held to higher standards of health, well-being and beauty, she added.

“When society says things like ‘she’s too skinny, because she has TB, she’s unworthy of marriage because she has or had TB, or she continues to have TB because she’s irresponsible,’ we as a society are bullying TB patients one step closer to death – a death that is fully preventable. And this has to stop,” she said.

Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/09/1141307

Surge in HIV Cases In Maharashtra: Govt Ponders Strategies

According to the statistics, in the year 2022-2023, around 14,347 people were identified with HIV in Maharashtra, of which 5-6% (674) were in the 17-22 age group.

Mumbai: The increase in the HIV cases among the vulnerable risk groups has forced the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) to re-think on effective strategies to step up the awareness about the deadly disease among youth.

According to the statistics, in the year 2022-2023, around 14,347 people were identified with HIV in Maharashtra, of which 5-6% (674) were in the 17-22 age group.

Surge in HIV cases among adolescents

A senior official said that considering the surge in the case among adolescents, they have listed 14,000 colleges across the state where Red Ribbon Clubs (RRC) will be organised. According to MSACS data, there are approximately 2.36 lakh people living with HIV in Maharashtra and in Mumbai there are more than 4,000 HIV-positive persons.

Meanwhile, according to the data provided by the Mumbai Districts Aids Control Society (MDACS), this year from April to August, the city has recorded 1,432 HIV cases, which means around 12 people are identified with HIV per day.

Dr Ishwar Gilada, consultant in HIV, STDs, and Infectious Diseases and President-Emeritus, AIDS Society of India, has said that there has been a slow rise in HIV cases among adolescents which is not good for society. There is a need for conducting RCC to promote awareness about HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

Scientific sex education- need of the hour

“Plenty of sex material is available on the net or on campus and young people surely explore. But scientific sex education is opposed or at best shied away. A third of young people, especially males, visiting our clinic had their first sex experience as ‘abuse’. And it is common that an abused person becomes an abuser in due course,” said Dr Gilada.

The RRC is a movement started by the Government of India in schools and colleges through which students will spread awareness of HIV / AIDS as well as promote voluntary blood donation among youth between the age of 17-25 years.

A senior health official from the state health department said, “There is no watch on adolescents of what they are doing or watching on social media. Moreover, there are several dating apps and indulging with strangers online without knowing the risk factors. The current generation is way ahead of everything due to conducting awareness camps to promote HIV which has taken a backseat.”

Source: https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/surge-in-hiv-cases-in-maharashtra-govt-ponders-strategies

‘We’ll be living and working to 120 – and it will start within a decade’ says doctor to the stars

It is a traditional Jewish birthday greeting: “May you live to be 120.” And so far, only one person in all of history is officially recorded as having made it that far.

But now a doctor tells The Post that living a full, healthy life to 120 will be attainable — starting this decade.

Dr. Ernst von Schwarz believes that rapid advances in stem cells mean living and even working far beyond current expectations is entirely within humanity’s grasp and that 150 will be normal by the end of the century.

The only downside: stem cells will not work alone. If you want to benefit, now is the time to start eating healthily and exercising regularly.

And, he warns, it might be too late for some — 30 is when you really need to change your life.

“I believe that we can create prolongation of life,” von Schwarz tells The Post. “Probably within a couple of years people can live to 120, 150 years if not longer than that.

“And not just as bed-bound non-communicating individuals, but really as active individuals who can participate in social life, professional life and have a quality of life. Because that’s the goal.”

Dr. Ernst von Schwarz is a triple board-certified internist, cardiologist, and heart transplant cardiologist. Margot Judge for NY Post

The provocative claim may seem to stretch credulity.

The only person acknowledged officially as living past 120 was France’s Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997, aged 122 years and 164 days — and even that record has been questioned, with theories circulating that Calment’s daughter was actually posing as her.

But von Schwarz is throwing his full weight — as a triple board-certified internist, cardiologist, and heart transplant cardiologist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and the Heart Institute of the Southern California Hospital — behind the idea that a healthy 120 years can be our allotted span.

Human stem cells are the next frontier of medicine, says von Schwarz, with the potential to make a life expectancy of 120 healthy years normal, starting this decade.
Getty Images/iStockphoto

There is, he says, a quiet revolution going on inside medicine.

“In the last few years, we have shifted from what we call reactive medicine to what we now call regenerative medicine using mainly stem cell therapies,” von Schwarz explains.

“Even though stem cells are not FDA-approved, that’s the future of medicine where we are able to repair damage. And by repairing damage we can prolong life, or even reduce certain processes of aging.”

Von Schwarz makes the claim in a new book, “Secrets of Immortality,” which picks up where his previous one, “The Secret World of Stem Cell Therapy,” leaves off.

Jeanne Calment, of Arles, Frances, is the only human being recorded as having lived past 120. She died in 1997, aged 122. Some claims of exceptional longevity have been made but without enough documentation to satisfy scientists or the Guinness Book of Records.
AFP via Getty Images

He is also prescribing stem cells himself. Celebrities clamor for Dr. von Schwarz’s anti-aging facials before the Oscars and Emmys.

While he wouldn’t disclose his patients’ names, his book publicist touts his supporters as including Frank Stallone, Jeff Fahey, Lisa Gastineau, Josie Davis, Drea De Matteo, and Fabio.

“We inject stem cells into their face, and they glow,” he says. “The process repairs superficial skin damage and regenerates collagen in the face. After a few days, they look 5 to 10 years younger.”

Von Schwarz is no stranger to the celebrity scene: his wife is actress Angela Oakenfold, the ex-wife of DJ Paul Oakenfold.

Source: https://nypost.com/2023/09/23/doctor-stem-cells-will-extend-life-to-120-from-this-decade/

World leaders commit to redouble efforts towards universal health coverage by 2030

Today, at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-Level Meeting, world leaders have approved a new Political Declaration on “Universal Health Coverage (UHC): expanding our ambition for health and well-being in a post-COVID world”.

The declaration is hailed as a vital catalyst for the international community to take big and bold actions and mobilize the necessary political commitments and financial investments to attain the UHC target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The UHC target measures the ability of countries to ensure that everyone receives the health care they need, when and where they need it, without facing financial hardship. It covers the full continuum of key services from health promotion to prevention, protection, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. Alarmingly, global progress towards UHC has been largely stagnating since 2015, before stalling in 2019.

The urgency of the declaration is evident in the staggering statistics. At least 4.5 billion people—more than half of the world’s population—were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021. Two billion people experienced financial hardship, with over 1.3 billion being pushed or further pushed into poverty just trying to access basic health care – a stark reality of widening health inequities.

“Ultimately, universal health coverage is a choice–a political choice,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The political declaration countries approved today is a strong signal that they are making that choice. But the choice is not just made on paper. It’s made in budget decisions and policy decisions. Most of all, it’s made by investing in primary health care, which is the most inclusive, equitable, and efficient path to universal health coverage.”

Turning point for course-correction
In the Political Declaration, Heads of State and world leaders committed to take key national actions, make essential investments, strengthen international cooperation and global solidarity at the highest political level to accelerate progress towards UHC by 2030, using a primary health care (PHC) approach.

For health care to be truly universal, it requires a shift from health systems designed around diseases to systems designed for people. PHC, an approach to strengthening health systems centred on people’s needs, is one of the most effective areas for investment to accelerate progress towards UHC.

Countries that have taken a PHC approach have better ability to rapidly build stronger, more resilient health systems to reach the most vulnerable and achieve a higher return on health investments. Most importantly, they ensure that more people are covered with essential health services and are empowered to participate in making the decisions that affect their health and well-being.

It is estimated that an additional US$ 200–328 billion investment per year is needed to scale-up a PHC approach in low- and middle-income countries (e.g. up to approximately 3.3% of national gross domestic product). This could help health systems deliver up to 90% of essential health services, save at least 60 million lives and increase average life expectancy by 3.7 years by 2030.

Source: https://www.who.int/news/item/21-09-2023-world-leaders-commit-to-redouble-efforts-towards-universal-health-coverage-by-2030

World-first AI foundation model for eye care to supercharge global efforts to prevent blindness

Researchers at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that has the potential to not only identify sight-threatening eye diseases but also predict general health, including heart attacks, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease.

RETFound, one of the first AI foundation models in health care, and the first in ophthalmology, was developed using millions of eye scans from the NHS. The research team are making the system open-source: freely available to use by any institution worldwide, to act as a cornerstone for global efforts to detect and treat blindness using AI. This work has been published in Nature.

Progress in AI continues to accelerate at a dizzying pace, with excitement being generated by the development of “foundation” models such as ChatGPT. A foundation model describes a very large, complex AI system, trained on huge amounts of unlabeled data, which can be fine-tuned for a diverse range of subsequent tasks.

RETFound consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art AI systems across a range of complex clinical tasks, and even more importantly, it addresses a significant shortcoming of many current AI systems by working well in diverse populations, and in patients with rare disease.

Senior author Professor Pearse Keane (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) said, “This is another big step towards using AI to reinvent the eye examination for the 21st century, both in the U.K. and globally. We show several exemplar conditions where RETFound can be used, but it has the potential to be developed further for hundreds of other sight-threatening eye diseases that we haven’t yet explored.”

“If the U.K. can combine high quality clinical data from the NHS, with top computer science expertise from its universities, it has the true potential to be a world leader in AI-enabled health care. We believe that our work provides a template for how this can be done.”

AI foundation models have been called “a transformative technology” by the U.K. government in a report published earlier this year, and have come under the spotlight with the launch in November 2022 of ChatGPT, a foundation model trained using vast quantities of text data to develop a versatile language tool.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-world-first-ai-foundation-eye-supercharge.html

Sepsis accounts for 1 in five deaths globally: WHO chief

World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (File Photo/ANI)

On World Sepsis Day, Director General of World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that WHO is committed to addressing Sepsis as a global threat.

To observe World Sepsis Day, Tedros shared a video on X, captioned, “#Sepsis accounts for nearly 1 in 5 deaths globally, including children. We know these deaths can be avoided, through vaccines, rapid diagnostics and timely access to appropriate and effective treatments. We call on all countries to take serious action. #HealthForAll.”

“Sepsis accounts for nearly one in five deaths globally, and 85 per cent of Sepsis cases and deaths are in low and middle-income countries,” said Tedros in a short video message.

He added that children under five years of age are among the most affected, but these deaths can be avoided through vaccines, rapid diagnostics, and timely access to appropriate and effective treatment.

“WHO is committed to addressing Sepsis as a global threat. Six years ago, our member states adopted the first global resolution on Sepsis. This year’s, World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on emergency, critical and operative care, as well as a global strategy on infection prevention and control,” Tedros said.

The WHO chief also said that next year, “WHO will launch new guidelines on Sepsis prevention and management, including prevention of bloodstream infections.”

Source: https://theprint.in/world/sepsis-accounts-for-1-in-five-deaths-globally-who-chief/1761049/

Doctors have been measuring blood pressure all wrong, study explains

If you’re someone with high blood pressure, you’re going to want to sit up for this news. Researchers working with the American Heart Association have released the results of a nearly 30-year study on high blood pressure, finding that doctors may miss certain health complications if they don’t have their patients lying down.

Typically, patients are only measured while sitting upright. Now, it should become common practice to do two readings, doctors argue.

“If blood pressure is only measured while people are seated upright, cardiovascular disease risk may be missed if not measured also while they are lying supine on their backs,” says lead study author Duc M. Giao, a researcher and a 4th-year MD student at Harvard Medical School, in a media release.

People who also had their blood pressure taken while lying down revealed elevated risks for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and premature death. The type of medications people use to manage blood pressure did not impact cardiovascular risks, according to the findings.

The autonomic nervous system regulates blood pressure. However, the pull of gravity may prompt blood to pool while seated or in an upright position. Meanwhile, the body is sometimes unable to regulate blood pressure while lying down, being seated, and standing.

“Our findings suggest people with known risk factors for heart disease and stroke may benefit from having their blood pressure checked while lying flat on their backs,” Giao adds.

The first phase of the study began in 1987 and continued until 1989. A total of 15,972 adults living in the U.S. had their blood pressure taken while lying down or sitting up. One of the key features of the study was the diversity of the participants. Over half (56%) were women, and 25 percent of the participants were Black. Blood pressure data was gathered in both rural and urban clinics. Their health was then followed for an average of 25 to 28 years, with the latest health data collected between 2011 and 2013.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/measuring-blood-pressure-wrong/

Nipah alert sounded in Kerala after two ‘unnatural’ deaths: All you need to know

The first-ever Nipah virus outbreak in south India was reported from Kozhikode and Malappuram districts in 2018.

Deaths due to Nipah virus infection were reported in Kozhikode district in 2018 and 2021.(PTI FILE)

The Kerala health department on Monday night sounded a health alert in Kozhikode after two people who died due to “unnatural” deaths in the district were suspected to have been infected with the Nipah virus (NiV). According to state health minister Veena George, the relatives of one of the deceased are also admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), reported news agency PTI.

The two deceased were admitted at a private hospital in the Kozhikode district, said reports.

Earlier on Monday, the state health minister held a high-level meeting and reviewed the situation in the district.

All you need to know about the Nipah virus and the outbreak in Kerala:

The first-ever Nipah virus outbreak in south India was reported from Kozhikode and Malappuram districts in 2018. The district has since witnessed another massive outbreak in 2021.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Nipah virus infection is a zoonotic illness that is transmitted via animals to humans, and can also be transmitted via contaminated food or directly between people and is caused by fruit bats. The virus is not only fatal for humans, but for animals as well. The virus can also cause severe disease in animals such as pigs, resulting in significant economic losses for farmers, WHO said.
Although the Nipah virus has caused only a few known outbreaks in Asia, it infects a wide range of animals and causes severe disease and death in people, the WHO said on its website.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nipah-alert-sounded-in-kerala-after-two-unnatural-deaths-all-you-need-to-know-101694479958878.html

Number of dengue cases in Kolkata has doubled in about a fortnight

The number of dengue cases in Kolkata has doubled in about a fortnight, figures shared by some officials of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation over the last month have shown.

There has been a corresponding rise in hospital admissions too, senior officials and doctors of private healthcare units in Kolkata said.

A KMC official said on Saturday that till the last count, about 1,400 dengue infections have been reported since January. KMC updates the number of dengue infections in the city every Thursday.

The Telegraph had reported earlier that about 700 dengue cases were reported till the second week of August.

Neither the KMC nor the state health department released any official data on the number of dengue infections, but some officials shared with The Telegraph the number of dengue infections on condition of anonymity. There is no official data on the number of people who have died of dengue, but several deaths from dengue have come to light.

KMC officials admitted on Saturday and Sunday that the numbers have seen a sharp rise in the last two weeks.

“We are going door-to-door telling people that they should not allow water to accumulate anywhere in their house. We are also detecting and destroying sites for mosquito breeding. We are also cleaning abandoned vacant plots as they turn into sites for mosquito breeding,” said a KMC official.

Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/news/number-of-dengue-cases-in-kolkata-has-doubled-in-about-a-fortnight/cid/1963583

Himachal Pradesh reports five deaths from 732 scrub typhus cases

As many as 732 persons tested positive for scrub typhus while five deaths due to disease have been reported in Himachal Pradesh so far this year.

The Health Department has braced up tackle scrub typhus a rickettsial disease effectively.

National Health Mission, Mission Director Sudesh Mokta informed that till now 5218 tests have been conducted in the state, out of which 723 people were found positive and 5 people died due to the disease.

“Keeping in mind the current situation, all the Chief Medical Officers and Senior Medical Superintendents of the state have been asked to ensure proper storage of medicines,” he said, adding that it has also been asked to conduct comprehensive information, education and communication activities along with appropriate management for prevention and treatment of scrub typhus.

A spokesperson of the Health Department said that scrub typhus is a seasonal zoonotic (animal borne disease), generally the number of patients with high fever increases during the rainy season.

Most cases of which occur during the rainy season, which coincides with hay cutting and apple season.

“This disease is spread by the bite of a flea (mite) infected with a special bacteria (Rickettsia). This bacteria enters the body through the skin and causes scrub typhus fever. If a person is suffering from fever along with pain and shivering in the joints or there are cramps, stiffness in the body or the body feels as if it is broken and also has lumps in the neck, under the arms and above the hips due to excessive infection, then immediately the person needs to consult the nearest doctor,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson urged the general public to cover their entire body, especially their legs, feet and arms while working in the fields and bushes.

Source: https://www.thestatesman.com/india/himachal-pradesh-reports-five-deaths-from-732-scrub-typhus-cases-1503217402.html

How lpca Labs’ Billion-Dollar move could change the pharma game forever? Acquires Unichem Labs for Rs 1034.06 crore!

Good news for shareholders of Unichem; here’s why!

Exciting news broke on April 24, 2023, as lpca Laboratories Limited announced that it had entered into a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of a whopping 33.38 per cent of the paid-up equity share capital of Unichem Laboratories Limited. The acquisition was made from one of the company’s promoters, Dr Prakash Amrut Mody, at a price of Rs. 440 per equity share, amounting to a grand total of Rs 1034.06 crores.

However, this acquisition triggered an open offer under SEBI SAST regulations, as the acquirer, Ipca Laboratories, was acquiring more than the threshold limit. As a result, Ipca Laboratories made an open offer to the public equity shareholders of Unichem Laboratories, offering to acquire up to 26 per cent of the equity share capital at a price of Rs 440 per share, which is about a 13.4 per cent premium of the last closing price on NSE of 388.05.

The acquisition is subject to approval from CCI, but the potential benefits of this acquisition are enormous. Unichem Laboratories is an international, integrated, specialty pharmaceutical company that manufactures and markets a large basket of pharmaceutical formulations as branded generics as well as generics in several countries across the globe, with major markets being the United States of America and Europe.

Source: https://www.dsij.in/dsijarticledetail/how-lpca-labs-billion-dollar-move-could-change-the-pharma-game-forever-acquires-unichem-labs-for-rs-103406-crore

Health secretary slams abortion pill ruling as ‘not America’

The nation’s top health official said Sunday that a court ruling threatening the availability of a main drug used in medication abortion was “not America” and he did not rule out defying the judge’s order if necessary.

“We want the courts to overturn this reckless decision,” Xavier Becerra, President Joe Biden’s health secretary, told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We want, yes, that women continue to have access to a drug that’s proven itself safe. Millions of women have used this drug around the world.”

He stressed that for now, women do have access to the abortion medication mifepristone after a federal judge in Texas, Donald Trump-appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk, put his ruling from Friday on hold for a week so federal officials could file a challenge. The drug was approved in 2000 by the Food and Drug Administration, which is overseen by the Health and Human Services Department headed by Becerra.

“For America’s sake and for women’s sake, we have to prevail in this,” he said.

Biden has said his administration would fight the Texas ruling. Kacsmaryk’s 67-page order gave the government seven days to appeal.

“We intend to do everything to make sure it’s available to them not just in a week, but moving forward, period, because mifepristone is one of the safest and most effective medicines that we have seen over the last 20 years to help women with their health care, especially abortion care,” Becerra said.

Asked whether he might recommend that the FDA ignore a ban, Becerra said, “Everything is on the table.”

There is uncertainty about access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the United States following two separate and conflicting court rulings in Texas and Washington over the legality of mifepristone.

Kacsmaryk’s decision ordering a hold on federal approval of mifepristone overruled decades of scientific approval. But a ruling at nearly the same time in Washington state from that U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice, a Barack Obama appointee, directed U.S. authorities not to make any changes that would restrict access to the drug in at least 17 states where Democrats sued in an effort to protect availability.

Becerra said Kacsmaryk’s order could have dire ramifications for the legality of any FDA-approved drug, such as vaccines, insulin or new Alzheimer’s drugs coming onto the market because it seeks to “turn upside down” the entire FDA approval process.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-pills-mifepristone-court-order-becerra-fda-307bcfdbb08418c6a57bc8cc789428c8

US judge suspends approval of mifepristone in latest abortion setback

Used boxes of Mifepristone pills, the first drug used in a medical abortion, fill a trash at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., January 11, 2023. REUTERS/Evleyn Hockstein

A U.S. judge in Texas on Friday suspended the two-decade-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone while a legal challenge proceeds, dealing another setback to abortion rights in the United States.

Adding to the volatile legal landscape around abortion, a federal judge in Washington state on Friday issued a seemingly conflicting injunction that prevented federal regulators from altering access to the same abortion drug.

The 67-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, will not take effect for one week, in order to give the Biden administration a chance to file an emergency appeal, which the U.S. Department of Justice said it will do.

Kacsmaryk’s ruling is a preliminary injunction that would essentially ban sales of mifepristone while the case by anti-abortion groups before him continues. The judge, who was appointed to the bench by Republican President Donald Trump, has not yet made a final ruling on the merits of the challenge.

However, in his ruling he found that the lawsuit is substantially likely to succeed. He said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had ignored risks in approving the drug.

“The Court does not second-guess FDA’s decision-making lightly,” he wrote. “But here, FDA acquiesced on its legitimate safety concerns – in violation of its statutory duty – based on plainly unsound reasoning and studies that did not support its conclusions.”

The case was brought by four anti-abortion groups headed by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors who sued the FDA in November. They contend the agency used an improper process when it approved mifepristone in 2000 and did not adequately consider the drug’s safety when used by girls under age 18 to terminate a pregnancy.

“By illegally approving dangerous chemical abortion drugs, the FDA put women and girls in harm’s way, and it’s high time the agency is held accountable for its reckless actions,” said Erik Baptist of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the case.

‘EXTREME ANTI-CHOICE AGENDA’

The ruling will likely inflame the fraught U.S. politics of abortion, which have divided the country since last year’s Supreme Court ruling that overturned a women’s constitutional right to the procedure.

“Democrats will do everything in our power to fight back to ensure access to safe and legal abortion is protected, and voters will hold every last Republican accountable for an extreme anti-choice agenda,” said Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Since the Supreme Court ruled, 12 of the 50 states now ban abortion outright while many others prohibit it after a certain length of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

Mifepristone is part of a two-drug regimen, administered in combination with misprostol, for medication abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The drugs account for more than half of all abortions in the country.

Some abortion providers have said that if mifepristone is unavailable, they would switch to a misoprostol-only regimen for a medication abortion, which is not as effective. It is not yet clear how widely available it would be.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-hands-anti-abortion-groups-partial-win-over-abortion-pill-2023-04-07/

Rajasthan doctors call off stir against Right to Health Bill after pact with government

The representatives of agitating doctors and Principal Secretary (Medical Education) T. Ravikanth arrived at a consensus

Doctors take part in a protest rally against Rajasthan’s Right to Health bill on MI Road in Jaipur on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: PTI

After two weeks of protest against the Right to Health Bill, private doctors in Rajasthan on Tuesday called off their agitation following an agreement reached with the State government on the applicability of the legislation. The Private Hospitals & Nursing Homes Association announced that all hospitals across the State will start functioning from Wednesday morning.

The representatives of agitating doctors and Principal Secretary (Medical Education) T. Ravikanth arrived at a consensus that the private hospitals which have not availed of concessions or taken land and building at subsidised rates from the State government will be kept out of the purview of the Act. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding comprising eight points after negotiations.

The Right to Health Bill, passed in the State Assembly on March 21, gives every resident of Rajasthan the right to emergency treatment care without prepayment of requisite fee or charges to any health institution. Though Rajasthan became the first State to legislate the right to health, private hospitals were apprehensive of the government’s interference in their functioning after the enforcement of the law.

While the talks with the government officers were continuing, the agitating medicos, accompanied by their family members and para-medical staff, took out a massive rally for the second time on the roads of Jaipur on Tuesday morning. A similar rally was earlier organised on March 27 in a show of strength.

Private Hospitals & Nursing Homes Society’s secretary Vijay Kapoor said the agreement had been reached “without any pressure” and the main demands of the doctors had been accepted, while the government would enforce the right with its own resources. The delegation which went for talks included the representatives of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the United Private Clinics and Hospitals of Rajasthan (UPCHAR).

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said Rajasthan had become the first State with the right to health after the end of the doctors’ strike. “I hope that the doctor-patient relationship will remain cordial in future as well. The doctor fraternity has shown a spirit of service and generosity, which will write a new chapter in social security,” Mr. Gehlot said.

Source : https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/rajasthan-doctors-call-off-stir-against-right-to-health-bill-after-pact-with-government/article66698870.ece