Health ministry mulls ban on cosmetic testing on animals |  |
- Health ministry mulls ban on cosmetic testing on animals
- Junior doctors end 14-day strike in Bihar
- Runaway bride returns home to new toilet in Uttar Pradesh
- Pharma bigwigs join hands for new TB drug
| Health ministry mulls ban on cosmetic testing on animals Posted: 28 Jun 2012 12:01 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, June 27 - India's health ministry Wednesday said it is considering a proposal by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals - for a ban on testing of cosmetics on animals, a PETA statement said Wednesday. PETA's science policy advisor Chaitanya Koduri and Guru S. Nair of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Wednesday held talks with S. Manivannan, deputy drug controller at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, under the health ministry, as part of PETA's ongoing campaign against cosmetic testing on animals. According to a statement, Manivannan indicated willingness to consider a proposal regarding a ban by the ministry. Koduri is also seeking a meeting with Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on the issue. PETA's call for an end to the usage of animals to test cosmetics has already gained endorsement from the Indian Council of Medical Research, said the statement. Testing cosmetics on animals is old-fashioned, unnecessary, kills animals and does nothing to protect consumers, said Koduri, adding that human-relevant and humane non-animal methods of testing the safety of cosmetic products were already available. More than 1,000 companies around the world have banned all animal tests, but many still choose to subject animals to painful tests in which substances are smeared on their skin, sprayed in their faces or forced down their throats. Because of the vast physiological differences between humans and the animals used in these tests, the results are often misleading, PETA said. http://www.rxpgnews.com |
| Junior doctors end 14-day strike in Bihar Posted: 27 Jun 2012 11:50 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Patna, June 27 - Junior doctors of Bihar's premier medical institution - the Patna Medical College and Hospital - - ended their 14-day long strike Wednesday after the state government assured them it would look into their grievances. Medicos of two other colleges will also call off their agitation. According to reports, the strike led to the death of over a dozen patients, including children affected by the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, but the government has not confirmed it. Hundreds of junior doctors of the PMCH were on strike after relatives of some patients manhandled their colleagues on duty. The inident led to doctors going on strike and also putting up demands like introduction of junior residency scheme and proper management of hospitals. The state government last Monday raised the stipend of the junior doctors from Rs.25,000 to Rs.30,000, and this led to the medicos calling off their strike, officials of the health department said. The junior doctors of Nalanda Medical College and Hospital - in Patna and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital who were also on strike in support of their PMCH colleagues are now likely to end their strike soon. http://www.rxpgnews.com |
| Runaway bride returns home to new toilet in Uttar Pradesh Posted: 27 Jun 2012 11:32 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Maharajganj, June 27 - A young woman, who ran away from her in-laws' house for its lack of toilet, returned Wednesday -- to the same house with an ultra-modern toilet and a reward of Rs.2 lakh from Sulabh International. With her were two other women who too had similarly walked out from their in-laws' houses. Priyanka Bharti was mobbed as she arrived decked up like a bride for her 'gauna' ceremony to her Vishnupur Khurd village in a sports utility vehicle -. Amidst blowing of conch shells and 'aarti', tears rolled down her cheeks as she was ushered in by her in-laws and shown the new toilet and bathroom. Later, she along with the two other 'runaway brides' - Priyanka Kumari from Siddharthanagar and Jyoti from Sant Kabeernagar - and Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of sanitation NGO Sulabh International, took centre stage in an enclosure. Priyanka narrated to the gathered villagers, numbering around 500, how she took the extreme and difficult step of walking out of her husband's home because she was asked to defecate in the open. It was not possible for me to do so and so I ran away, she told the crowd amid applause. A Class 12 student from Maharajganj, 365 km from Lucknow, said the lack of a toilet in the house was a big challenge for her at the sasural. She said she mustered enough courage to run away on the third night after her 'gauna' -- the traditional induction of a bride married in childhood into her in-laws' house. Talking to IANS, Priyanka said ever since she ran away from Vishunpur Khurd April 13 demanding that her in-laws build a toilet to get their 'bahu' back, her life changed as she attracted national and international attention. I'm happy that by the construction of a new toilet with all modern facilities, I'm back with my husband and can live happily, she said, as photographers jostled to take her picture with her in-laws. Bindeshwar Pathak felicitated each of the three brides with the bank draft of... http://www.rxpgnews.com |
| Pharma bigwigs join hands for new TB drug Posted: 27 Jun 2012 08:17 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, June 27 - Pharmaceutical companies and research institutions in association with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have stepped up efforts to aid research on a new drug for tuberculosis -, a disease that annually kills about three lakh in India. The partnership, TB Drug Accelerator -, will target the discovery of new TB drugs by collaborating on early-stage research. The long-term goal of the TBDA is to create a TB drug that cures patients in only one month, a statement from pharma firm Sanofi said Wednesday. Seven pharmaceutical companies and four research institutions have teamed up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the goal. Under the current TB course of medication, the patient has to be on antibiotics for at least six months, during which 20-30 percent patients drop out before completion. With financial aid from the Gates Foundation, partners officially launched the TBDA in April and have begun the first round of screening for new TB drug candidates. TB drug discovery has reached a crossroads. Finding new and faster-acting TB drugs will take a new kind of partnership, connecting not only academia and industry, but drug company with drug company, a Sanofi statement quoted Carl Nathan, professor and chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, as saying. The TBDA aims to develop five new preclinical drug candidates with treatment-shortening potential within 5 years and proof-of-concept for a one-month three-drug regimen within 10 years. The participating pharmacy giants include Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Sanofi. The companies will share data with American research institutions like Infectious Disease Research Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Weill Cornell Medical College. The TB Drug Accelerator establishes a new paradigm of cooperation in drug discovery. By working... http://www.rxpgnews.com |
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