Medicines Financial News

pharmaceutical sector, a major global supplier of generic medicines.The revised Schedule M GMP had been earlier extended from the previous 1 January 2025 cutoff. The proposed extension for MSMEs, which have revenue of ₹250 crore or less, comes in the backdrop of less than a third of them submitting their upgrade plans, with the remaining units risking immediate closure and penalties.There are a total of 10,500 drug manufacturing units in India, of which 8,500 fall under the MSME category.

Dear reader, as 2025, a year of global tumult and volatility, rolls by, Mint's reporters and columnists look around the corner on what is coming in 2026—to help you know what to expect and prepare for it. Tell us what you think at [email protected] India stands at a pivotal moment in its journey toward universal health coverage (UHC).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India has revised rules for opening retail outlets under a government scheme to sell high-quality generic drugs at affordable prices, mandating a minimum distance of 500 meters between stores in major urban areas, according to two officials and a document reviewed by Mint. This decision replaces the guidelines issued in September, and seeks to balance the scheme’s rapid expansion with the financial health of Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Kendras.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: As the India-Oman free trade agreement (FTA) is set to be signed on Thursday during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Muscat, the deal is being positioned as a key pillar of India’s expanding economic and strategic engagement with the Gulf, even as its immediate trade upside remains measured by the size of Oman’s market. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will be the final stop of the Prime Minister’s three-nation tour, which included Jordan and Ethiopia.

It is welcome that the Delhi high court has rejected Novo Nordisk’s effort to extend its patent on specific formulations of the blockbuster drug semaglutide, sold as Ozempic to treat diabetes and as Wegovy for obesity. In 2013, India’s Supreme Court had set a precedent on patent ‘evergreening’ by way of offering it in a different form; it dismissed Novartis’s claim that its new variant of Glivec (effective against leukemia) deserved a separate patent from its original formulation since it offered better bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy without back-up evidence.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A mock job advertisement that has done the rounds recently calls for a “killswitch engineer" for OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. The description requires the successful applicant to stand by servers all day and unplug them “if this thing turns on us".

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India’s drug regulator has raised an urgent red flag over a threat to the country’s most effective malaria medicines, directing all state drug controllers to immediately trace and stop the manufacturing and sale of oral single-drug artemisinin formulations, the active ingredient used in the country's most potent malaria drugs, two officials said, citing an 8 December order seen by Mint.

For pharmaceutical firms, watching lucrative patents on their top-selling drugs expire has long been part of the business cycle. There’s enormous pressure to find ways of covering the shortfall. For the first time, China has something to offer.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India plans to get its drug regulatory system audited and rated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to detect specific strengths and weaknesses that will help to make it fool proof, according to four officials and a document reviewed by Mint. The move comes after multiple instances of drug safety related incidents in the country as well as export markets raised serious questions on the quality of medicines made in India, often referred to as ‘pharmacy of the world’.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI: India’s drug regulator, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), plans to tighten rules on the sale and distribution of emergency contraceptive pills, including levonorgestrel formulations, sold under brand names such as Unwanted-72 and i-pill, and ulipristal pills sold as ella. The move, aimed at preventing habitual overuse and ensuring women have access to critical safety information, will require these pills to carry QR codes on their packaging, according to two officials and a document reviewed by Mint.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. One of the greatest public-health achievements of recent decades has been driving down child mortality around the world. Now, that long-running decline is reversing.

Inaugurating the new Pamban bridge here, he said it was the country's first vertical lift railway sea bridge. Modi said efforts were on to take Tamil language, heritage to all corners of the world. Without naming anyone, Modi said he gets letters from leaders of Tamil Nadu and «they do not sign in Tamil. »At least put your signature in Tamil."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said while America is willing to continue to help those affected by the Myanmar earthquake, other countries should also pitch in to provide humanitarian assistance during such crises worldwide. «Well, we're not the government of the world. No, we will provide humanitarian assistance just like everybody else does and do it the best we can. But we also have other needs we have to balance that against. We're not walking away from humanitarian assistance,» Rubio told the media at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on Friday. Rubio was responding to a question about the earthquake and how the US offered help during such incidents by saving lives on the ground through special equipment and experts. Rubio was asked if that was not happening because of the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). «There's a lot of other rich countries in the world. They should all be pitching in. We're going to do our part. We already have people there, we'll have more people there. We'll help as much as we can. It's not the easiest place to work. They have a military junta that doesn't like us and doesn't necessarily allow us to operate in that country the way we want to. That would have impeded our response no matter what,» he said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Srinagar: Spring in Kashmir once brought the scent of pine sap and damp earth, the hush of melting snow, and the quiet rustle of footsteps combing the forest floor for a delicacy that blooms like a secret. The Gucchi mushroom—spongy, ridged, and among the world’s most expensive fungi—has long drawn foragers into the Himalayan woods, where it grows wild under deodar and pine.

UGC) has notified a new regulation to streamline the recognition and grant of equivalence degrees to academic qualifications obtained from foreign educational institutions. The move comes amid a growing number of Indian students returning from abroad with international credentials, often facing delays and uncertainty in getting their degrees recognised either for admission to Indian institutions or for employment. Under the new regulations--UGC (Recognition and Grant of Equivalence to Qualifications Obtained from Foreign Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2025--notified on April 4, the Commission has put in place a transparent, technology-driven mechanism to assess foreign qualifications from schools and higher education institutions.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services (PPFAS) Ltd’s flagship flexi-cap scheme has a cult following in the mutual fund space. After all, it has generated a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% since its launch in 2013.

Donald Trump exempted pharmaceuticals, one of New Delhi's key export items to the US, from the new reciprocal tariffs rule on Thursday. «Some goods will not be subject to the Reciprocal Tariff. These include: (1) articles subject to 50 USC 1702(b); (2) steel/aluminum articles and autos/auto parts already subject to Section 232 tariffs; (3) copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and lumber articles; (4) all articles that may become subject to future Section 232 tariffs; (5) bullion; and (6) energy and other certain minerals that are not available in the United States,» the White House said in a factsheet. The US market accounts for 30% of overall exports for India’s pharma sector.

Lupin on Wednesday said it has acquired UK-based Renascience Pharma for 12.3 million pounds (around Rs 135 crore). Lupin Healthcare (UK) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mumbai-based drug maker, is acquiring a 100 per cent stake in Renascience, which supplies products in the UK. With the acquisition, Lupin Healthcare (UK) Limited gains full ownership of Renascience which, going forward, will trade as its subsidiary, Lupin Ltd said in a statement. Renascience is the sole supplier for branded injectable cephalosporines for infectious diseases, a topical treatment for ear pain and a branded quinasoline-like diuretic for cardiovascular and renal indications in the UK market.

Donald Trump’s tariffs. Some are confident that whatever is announced on Wednesday will not hurt them; others are genuinely uncertain how to manage if they can’t export to the US. The pharmaceutical industry — which is well known globally for churning out generic drugs that are the backbone of many countries’ health systems — should be particularly worried. Over 30% of Indian pharma exports go to the US, and it provides an even larger proportion of earnings. Trump has promised, in the past, that levies on pharma imports would begin at 25%, similar to what he imposed on cars recently. But the president seems to have walked that back more recently, perhaps because the administration is uncertain of the consequences of a sharp rise in the price of off-patent drugs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. We’re just stepping into April but several parts of India are already suffering heat waves and abnormally high temperatures. As a result, hydration has become a hot topic earlier than usual.

According to a press release, issued by the state government, several citizens attended these camps organized at district, assembly, and block levels across the state. The release claimed the success of the camps showed that the public has full faith in the development works of the state government. These multipurpose camps were organized at all district headquarters from 22 March to 25 March and at the assembly and block levels from 24 March to 30 March. The release further mentioned that these camps received public support in all 13 districts of the state including Almora, Bageshwar, Champawat, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun, Haridwar, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri, Pauri and Uttarkashi. Thousands of citizens took benefits of various government schemes. The release said these camps directly benefited people in the fields of health, education, self-employment, and social security. “Hundreds of needy people got relief under free health checkups, medicines, vaccinations and Ayushman Bharat scheme. In the field of education, scholarships, textbooks, and digital education tools were distributed, benefiting thousands of students,” the release mentioned. To promote self-employment, financial assistance and guidance was provided to youth and women self-help groups under the Chief Minister's Self-Employment Scheme, Mudra Scheme and Startup Schemes. Farmers were made aware of information on agricultural schemes, grants and modern techniques, which could increase their productivity.