March 12, 2021
The signboards clearly indicated where the Covid-19 vaccination centre was situated at Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital. Yet, the centre, spruced up with welcome signs and a photo booth, was sparsely populated on Tuesday morning. The registration queue manned by two policemen had barely 10 people in line for the vaccine. Most of them were hospital staffers wearing their scrubs.
Outside the Delhi government-run hospital, 50-year-old daily-wage earner Prem Nath and his wife Asha Devi, 48, stood waiting for the bus to get back to their home in Dwarka, West Delhi. They did not know the hospital had a centre where they could avail the coronavirus vaccines free of cost.
Plea for TB drug generic production in India The use of bedaquiline and delamanid has been recommended but, the petitioners have said, the limited supplies make them unavailable to patients
Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to respond to a petition seeking legal steps to allow generic production of two patented anti-tuberculosis drugs currently unavailable to all patients in India who need them.
The court has asked the Centre to respond by April 28 to the petition by two TB survivors seeking a government use authorisation order or compulsory licence provisions in Indian patent laws to allow local production of the drugs bedaquiline and delamanid.
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MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Centre to decide by April 28 on a representation made last November for ‘compulsory licenses’ to import two patented life-saving anti-TB drugs Bedaquiline and Delamanid.
The compulsory license would to ensure swifter and affordable access to the fairly new drugs that treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) cases, said a Public interest litigation (PIL).
“Non-accessibility constitutes a violation of right to life,’’ said senior counsel Anand Grover with advocate Rahul Kamerkar appearing for an NGO, Jan swasthya abhiyan and Thane resident Meera Yadav survivor of XDR-TB who filed the PIL.
February 08, 2021
Says Govt must not include the allocations of other departments in the health budget
Despite grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic for over a year, allocations towards health-related programmes in the Budget have been “misrepresented”, according to the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (People’s Health Movement, India).
Pointing to the 137 per cent increase in healthcare allocation, JSA said, “the reality was exactly opposite”, and the government had lost an opportunity to strengthen the health system.
According to the Finance Minister, allocations for health and well-being have been increased from ₹94,452 crore to ₹2,23,846 crore, the note said. But this included allocations for Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Ministry of Jal Shakti; Allocations for POSHAN Abhiyan (National Nutrition Mission) under Ministry of Women and Child Development; Grants to Drinking Water and Sanitation, and health by the Fifteenth Finance Commission, and the allo