Bitter Medicines… 19 December 2007

Recently the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducted an international conference. Two independent pharma experts from India attended the same. They have summarised what other speakers had to say about the quality of medicines manufactured in India. Please read on.

· First the good news: Pharma company CIPLA scored 100 percent quality success.

· More than 50 percent of Indian medicines were accepted. Others failed to qualify.

· Another pharma company Ranbaxy qualified in around 54 percent of the applications it submitted. Rest failed.

· One of the Indian medicines did not show any efficacy at all. It was useless.

· Some of the Indian medicines including anti retroviral drugs used for treatment of AIDS sold in African countries were of poor quality.

· In quality, China was ahead of India (and we doubt the Chinese quality!)

Medicines which were rejected by WHO, were approved earlier by the Indian drug authorities. Why they failed to qualify at the international level? What are we hiding? Who is responsible? It is time the country did something about it. Wake up, please.

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

FOSS…. 7 December 2007

A five-day event known as foss.in started in Bangalore on 4 December 2007. I attended the same for the first three days, that is until yesterday. I plan to write about the event some other day soon.

What is FOSS ? It is the abbreviation for Free/Open Source Software. It stands for full freedom for production, distribution, modification, and use of software as per the needs and wishes of the user. This free environment and open standards is triggering large scale collaborative development of software, unleashing creativity and productivity, ultimately leading to lower costs and higher quality of software (Source: National Resource Centre for Free/Open source Software, Chennai).

FOSS movement is gaining momentum and acceptance. Many FOSS products like Linux, Apache, Firefox are being used widely. Many companies are also releasing their own software under open source. One does not require any licence to use these software.

FOSS is establishing a brave new world, across borders and continents. Most people driving this movement are not older than 30 years of age. Indians are part of this juggernaut.

S. Gopal

…..keying in is better than idling

`Off-Label’ use of medicines… 24 November 2007

(about 300 words)

 

The medical condition for which a medicine is to be used as well as the recommended dosage are printed on the container of the medicine and/or on a sheet of paper enclosed with the medicine.

 

The medicine manufacturers have to disclose to a government regulatory authority the contents of the medicine and for what ailment it is intended. They can market the medicines only after getting the approval.

 

Use of a medicine for a purpose different from the ones for which it has been approved by the regulatory authorities is known as `Off-Label use of medicines’.

 

Use of `off-label’ medicines is widespread. One example: Neurontin, a drug approved for epilepsy is being used for the treatment of pain.

Pharmaceutical experts have expressed several opinions on the subject. They are:

 

· Most doctors do not know the meaning of the term.

· Many doctors do not read the labels and prescribe medicines based on anecdotes (what they hear from unauthorised sources) rather than on clinical evidence.

· Pharma companies promote and encourage such use to promote their sales.

· Antibiotics (anti-bacterials) are used against viral diseases, even though it is well-known that they have no effect on viruses per se.

· Insurance companies in developed economies like USA do not pay for the `off label’ use of medicines.

· Many a time `off label’ use of medicine becomes an important alternative when approved medicines fail to produce medical benefits.

· There are examples of many drugs which started as `off-label’, but were approved later for clinical use.

· There are are lakhs of prescriptions coming to pharmacies all over India. It would be impossible to monitor even a fraction of them for `off-label use’.

 

S. Gopal

….Keying in is better than idling

Why do I go to the Santhe? … 12 November 2007

(almost 400 words)

Yesterday was a Sunday. As it happens every Sunday, the santhe came into being in the morning at the usual open space about a kilometer away from my residence. Santhe (known as haat in some cultures) is a congregation of vendors of a particular variety of products. This santhe is dedicated to vegetables.

Whenever I am in town and as far as possible, I go to this santhe to buy the weekly quota of vegetables needed by my house.

Why do I do so?

• First and foremost, is nostalgia. As a boy, I used to buy vegetables in such markets in Delhi. It brings back memories of my childhood.

• It is at walking distance.

• It is interesting to watch stuff being unloaded, opened and laid out for sale.

• The vegetables look fresh and appealing.

• I have never compared prices with other outlets, but purchasing here gives me a good feeling that I have bought items at `wholesale rates’ meaning `I have got a good value my money’

• This gives me an opportunity to `cock a snook’ at the corporate marts, who I feel have usurped from the urban disadvantaged a few remaining chances of engaging in some economic activity.

• I feel some satisfaction that I am helping those who are being uprooted from their traditional vocation.

• Here you can listen to some creative sales talk of the vendors in praise of the vegetables they are selling (for example this is `homegrown’, Sir; see you can feel the smoothness and softness); in contrast nobody talks to you in a supermarket.

While I do not haggle (my point is: how much am I going to save by that?) I see with amusement people arguing with the vendors for 50 paise or one rupee, more so because these are the people I saw alighting a little while ago from their Honda Cities, Ford Ikons, or Toyota Innovas. (these people park their cars about half-a-kilometer off; they do not want the vendors to get wind of their economic strength and `exploit’ them. Exploiters never want to be exploited !!!)

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Autorickshaws… 6 November 2007

Yes, the auto rickshaw (also known as auto, rick, or scooter) is a cause of pollution and indiscipline on the roads. However, it still remains a viable mode of transport for the Indian middle class.

While the auto rickshaws are the same everywhere, their drivers exhibit different characteristics in different cities.

The most unruly drivers can be found in chennai. They will

• never put `on’ the fare-meters and charge whatever they like (one would have to pay almost double of what one would pay in Bangalore for the same distance)
• decide where to go (and not where you want to go)
• speak sarcastically

Auto drivers in Bangalore and Hyderabad usually charge as per meter (excepting in railway stations and airports); they may not, however, return the change and may also take you round the city, if you are new to the place. The auto drivers of Hyderabad were on strike last week; they don’t want to fit un-tamperable digital meters as directed by the government !

Mumbai auto drivers are the most honest; hats off to them.

S. .Gopal
…keying in is better than idling

Therapies Galore…. 1 November 2007

Apart from the various medical systems – allopathic, ayurvedic, homeopathic, and unani – practised in India, there are many types of therapies advertised or announced in the Press. I have listed some of them below.

Dance therapy

Music therapy

Vipassana Medidation

Yoga therapy

Breathing Exercises (Art of Living)

Water therapy

Laughter therapy

Naturopathy

Aroma therapy

Massage therapy

Lifestyle change

Reiki

Pranic healing

Accupuncture therapy

Quite a few of these therapies work on the basic premise that the root cause of many medical problems is stress and tension associated with modern living. Each therapy claims to attack the root cause and ensure a happy living.

While all these therapies may result in some benefits, I wonder whether

• these therapies will stand the test of scientific scrutiny of replicability in identical conditions.
• commercial motivations of the practioners of these therapies have overtaken the noble ideals of those who discovered these therapies.

S. .Gopal
…keying in is better than idling

Gold matters… 25 October 2007

Value for money

Is the gold you are buying as pure as being promised by the trader? It is estimated that impurity in gold sold in India ranges from 11 to 39 percent. Indians consume 800 tonnes of gold annually and lose about Rupees 7 500 Crores due to impure gold. Hallmarking is the process of certifying the purity of gold. Hence buy only hallmarked gold.

Will you like to cause injury to others?

In the traditional method of making jewellery, silver or copper is used to solder gold. Many jewellers have now switched over to cadmium due to its good fluidity during the soldering process. Jewellery made using this process is known as KDM jewellery.

The unsafe side of KDM jewellery is that the toxic fumes given out during the soldering process (using cadmium – classified as heavy metal by scientists) are injurious to the health of the jewellery workers. There are about 80 000 jewellery workers in Karnataka and many of them children.

Will you still say `yes’ to non-hallmaked or KDM jewellery?

S. .Gopal
…keying in is better than idling