In the early hours of September 14 2021, three men parked in a quiet car park in the southern English market town of Abingdon-on-Thames. The men, returning from a night out, had pulled over to smoke heroin. Unknown to them, the drug had been fortified with a nitazene compound called isotonitazene, a highly potent new ..read more

Identifying a significant gap in the Ministry’s actions in addressing the funding and resource challenges in the premier mental health institutions, the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recommended various measures including development of a comprehensive long-term strategic plan for mental healthcare, research and infrastructure development. The measures should also include ..read more

(Dusty Pixel photography/Getty Images) An emerging strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza has spilled over from wild birds to dairy cows in the state of Nevada, and officials at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and some scientists are concerned by a mutation they are seeing. The viral variant, called genotype D1.1, is different to ..read more

The proposed budget allocation for the Central sector schemes of Department of Health Research (DHR), under the ministry of health and family welfare, is expected see an increase of almost 40 per cent during the fiscal year 2025-26, as compared to the initial projects under the Budget Estimates (BE) for the fiscal year 2024-25. The ..read more

(koto_feja/E+/Getty Images) A new model of Alzheimer’s disease has been proposed, which could speed up efforts to understand and cure the complex condition – while bringing all manifestations of the condition under one unifying theory. Researchers from Arizona State University suggest that stress granules – protein and RNA clumps that form around cells in stressful ..read more

Indian pharmaceutical industry plays a crucial role in the global drug supply chain, particularly in the US. Yet India needs to develop strategies to mitigate the impact of USAID funding freeze for Indian pharma companies. This is even as a large section of companies exporting to the US noted that even if foreign assistance is ..read more

(Filipp Romanovski/Unsplash) If you look up at the sky on a clear day, you might notice little cobweb-like structures drifting across your field of vision. They are known as floaters or, more formally, muscae volitantes – Latin for ‘flying flies’. Like regular flies, muscae volitantes are rather pesky, so it’s not surprising that people want ..read more

The Tamil Nadu State Pharmacy Council (TN SPC) has decided to hold the 9th council election in the month of June, and a schedule of election processes was prepared and sent to the government for gazette notification. It is expected that the government will publish the schedule in forthcoming gazette of February 15, to enable ..read more

(Jack Atkinson/Unsplash) We know that spending lots of time sitting down isn’t good for us, but just how much exercise is needed to counteract the negative health effects of sitting down all day? Research suggests about 30-40 minutes per day of building up a sweat should do it. Up to 40 minutes of “moderate to ..read more

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers has sought the Centre to take genuine efforts to implement the recommendations of the Standing Forum on Medical Device Association related to streamlining logistics and optimising transition towards licensing of all types of medical devices, among others. The Panel, in its report analysing the action ..read more