Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. In January of this year, a midwife from Uganda called Harriet Nayiga joined our press conference to talk about her experience as a health worker during the pandemic. While vaccines were being rolled out in the wealthiest countries, Harriet was one of many health workers in Africa and […]
US FDA grants Priority Review to Roche’s Tecentriq as adjuvant treatment for certain people with early non-small cell lung cancer
Application is being reviewed under the US FDA’s Real-Time Oncology Review pilot programme Based on results of the Phase III IMpower010 study, presented at ASCO, that showed adjuvant Tecentriq improved disease-free survival by more than one-third in PD-L1-positive early-stage lung cancer, compared with best supportive care Tecentriq is the first and only cancer immunotherapy to […]
FIFA launches #ReachOut campaign for better mental health
FIFA has launched #ReachOut, a campaign designed to raise awareness of the symptoms of mental health conditions, encourage people to seek help when they need it, and take actions every day for better mental health. With the support of past and current football players, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Association of Southeast Asian […]
Performance of National AIDS Control Programme
On the advice of NITI Aayog, an external evaluation of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) was conducted in 2020, which found that ‘programme has done a commendable job and performed very well’. NACP-IV and its extension phase (2012-21) largely achieved the goals and targets set out at the initiation of the phase. The external evaluation […]
Initiatives to recognize Services Rendered by Healthcare Workers Engaged in COVID-19
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has advised States/UTs to undertake various initiatives to recognize services rendered by healthcare workers engaged in COVID-19 related duties. Some of these include: All such professionals who sign up for minimum 100 days of Covid duty and complete it successfully will be given the Prime Minister’s Distinguished Covid National […]
Study on Post COVID Diseases
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an autonomous body under the Department of Health Research, has established a COVID clinical registry at 20 sites across the country to capture clinical treatment and outcomes of COVID-19. This information is only limited to hospitalized patients. Post Covid studies are being carried out on various conditions like aortic […]
Supply of Essential Drugs
The Government took various measures to increase the supply of essential drugs such as granting expeditious approvals to new manufacturing sites of existing manufacturers to enhance their production capacity, issuing licenses to new manufacturers/importers, helping the manufacturers in sourcing raw material and helping importers of drugs in getting maximum supplies on priority from the importing […]
Status of Pharmaceutical Export
The measures taken by Department of Commerce to promote exports include various schemes under the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), assistance under the Market Access Initiative (MAI) scheme, setting up district export hubs, Transport and Market Assistance Scheme etc. Trade delegations/buyer-seller meets with various countries are regularly organized for the benefit of exporters. Airfare support is […]
Schemes for promoting domestic manufacturing of APIs
The quantity of API manufactured domestically is not readily available. However, the size of API and Intermediates market in India is estimated to be Rs. 96,000 crore in FY 2019-20. Further, as per data maintained by Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), the quantity and value of API imported and exported in FY […]
Percentage of spurious drug samples shows consistent decline over the years
As per Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), isolated complaints regarding spurious drugs are received in CDSCO. As and when such complaints are received, based on merit, the matter is taken up by the CDSCO in coordination with State/UT Drugs Controller for action as per the provisions of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and […]
