New Delhi : The National Medical Commission (NMC) has stated that using unproven stem cell therapy to treat autistic children will be treated as “professional misconduct” indicating that it makes doctors liable for punitive action in case of violation. For the first time, the regulator for doctors in India has recognised the problem of predatory marketing of stem cell therapies to treat autism. The indiscriminate promotion has led to the creation of false hopes, unrealistic expectations, and exploitation of autistic children and their families. Until now, the ambiguity around the controversial therapy allowed some doctors and companies to subject hundreds…
Author: Surendrakumar Bajpai
New Delhi : The Ministry of health and family welfare (Mohfw) has decided to constitute a committee of seven membersto prepare the “national drugs database”. The committee will give recommendations and prepare a comprehensive database of drug formulations manufactured and marketed in the country, providing detailed information on a drug, its dosage form, strength, and details of the manufacturer, marketer, or importer of the drug. The database will not only “empower consumers” but will also improve the “monitoring mechanism” for the quality of drugs in circulation across the country and the “uniform administration” of the regulatory system.The members of the…
New Delhi : Country’s drug controller General of India (DCGI) has written a strongly worded letter to Rogerio Gaspar, Director, Regulation and Prequalification, WHO informing that all control samples of the products have been found to be complying with specifications. Government’s Central Drug Laboratory (CDL) which conducted quality tests on the samples lifted from Maiden pharmaceuticals – the Sonepat-based company which has been in the dock for allegedly causing deaths of children in Gambia has found the products to be complying with specifications, putting the onus on World Health Organisation (WHO) for “prematurely” blaming an Indian company for the deaths…
The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has directed all the state and Union territory (UT) governments and state pharmacy councils to take steps to immediately implement the Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR), 2015, notified by the Council in January 2015. PCI has shared the letter received from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) clarifying the procedures for implementation of the regulation in the states, considering education is on the concurrent list. The MoHFW clarified that the state government may declare that the regulations shall take effect in the state at any time after the constitution of the state pharmacy…
Washington : US health regulators approved the first gene therapy for hemophilia, a $3.5 million one-time treatment for the blood clotting disorder, making it the world’s most expensive drug. The drug costs 28.58 crores (28,58,48,675.00) in Indian rupees. The Food and Drug Administration, USA cleared drugmaker CSL Behring’s Hemgenix-hemophilia B gene therapy, an IV treatment for adults with hemophilia B, the less common form of the genetic disorder which primarily affects men.
New Delhi : The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal(ITAT) has recently observed in a major denial of relief against Mankind Pharma Ltd. that freebies given to doctors are illegal and do not fall under the head “Business Promotion Expenses”. The bench comprising of Anil Chaturvedi and Challa Nagendra Prasad disallowed the sales promotion expenses incurred by Mankind Pharma Ltd on account of freebies given to doctors and disallowed a claim of Rs. 1,06,78,600/- The Tribunal considered the nature of promotion expenses to decide whether the addition by the Assessing Officer(AO) was justified. The AO, during the assessment proceedings had noticed that…
The income tax department has introduced new Section 194R in the ITA to plug the possibility of tax revenue leakages or tax evasions by businesses and professionals. Prior to the introduction of Section 194R businesses and professionals offered in-kind incentives to various entities involved in their business and claimed it as expenses under Section 37 of ITA. Thus the businesses and professionals included these expenses in its profit and loss account and claimed Income Tax benefit. On the other hand the recipient of in-kind incentives did not report these in-kind incentives in their income leading to incorrect disclosure of income…
New Delhi: The parliamentary committee on welfare of schedule caste and schedule tribe has strongly pulled up AIIMS for its bias against the hiring of qualified professors and doctors from SC and ST community in AIIMS. The committee headed by Kirit P Solanki has been constituted to look at the roles of autonomous bodies and educational institutions, including central universities and engineering colleges, in the socio-economic development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with a focus on AIIMS.“It has been often seen that these students had invariably done very well in theory examinations but are declared to have failed in…
New Delhi : Taking forward the probe ordered by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (Mohfw) against the doctors accused of “unethical practice” in the Micro-Lab case, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has requested the Income Tax department to provide them with the name and addresses of doctors whose name have been unearthed in the Micro-Lab case by the IT department. Dr Yogender Malik, member of ethics committee of NMC, has written a letter to Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) and cited the regulations of code of conduct of doctors in India under section 6.8 of Indian Medical…
New Delhi : The National Medical Commission (NMC), the apex medical education regulatory body of India has recently made an application to the World Medical Education Federation (WMFE) seeking its recognition. The accreditation of WMFE has been necessitated since from 2024 the Indian medical graduates who apply for the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification ought to be a student or a graduate from an institute which is duly accredited by a WMFE recognized regulatory board. As of now the NMC is not recognized by WMFE and hence Indian medical graduates will become ineligible for the ECFMG certification…