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October 11, 2017 4:36 AM The Catch-22 the Centre must be finding itself in now may perhaps finally show the government what a bad idea price-capping is. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had capped the prices of coronary stents in February this year to spare patients what it perceived as unduly high prices charged for the device. But, soon enough, it had to face the unintended consequence of cheap Chinese stents starting make their presence felt in the market. The department of industrial policy and promotion had flagged this to the PMO—saying that this may “adversely affect efficacy of treatment”—and the PMO, in turn, asked the health ministry’s expert panel to study if the latest generation of biodegradable stents possess “futuristic innovations”, and could thus be classified under a separate category from the two categories subject to the cap and get a reprieve from price capping. Unfortunately, as per The Indian Express, the expert panel has concluded that

MUMBAI, OCTOBER 10 In a bid to pare its debt, the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra) is in talks with Adani Transmission for the sale of its flagship Mumbai distribution business, valued at ₹10,000-13,000 crore. The two companies have entered into an agreement for exclusive talks till January 15, 2018. “The proposed transaction would further strengthen ATL’s footprint in the power transmission sector while making its foray into the power distribution sector,” Adani Transmission said in a statement. It did comment any further on the potential deal. Divesting attempts RInfra has been trying to divest its Mumbai distribution business for the past three years. In 2015, in entered into talks with Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) of Canada for the sale of a 49 per cent stake in the discom. However, this did not result in a deal. If the deal with Adani goes through, RInfra will be looking at utilising the proceeds of the proposed

Oct 11, 2017, 11.43 AM IST  When Infrastructure Development and Finance Co (IDFC) was granted universal banking licence in 2014 from among 26 applicants, it was the envy of those who missed out on the coveted prize. Three and a half years later, both investors and the managements that were not lucky enough, are smiling.  A surge in liquidity, regulatory arbitrage, and the crippled state of banks converged to make the non-banking finance company (NBFC) business model a success with equity investors latching on to any business that would reflect the Indian financial services growth without its baggage of bad loans. Life has come a full circle with premium attached to banks shrinking while NBFCs gaining traction.  IDFC Bank which came into being in 2015 has lost 15.91 per cent since, while its parent IDFC gained 16.33 per cent. In the same period, Bajaj FinanceBSE 0.16 %, which failed to get a bank licence, rose 265.48 per cent and Warburg Pincus-backed Capital First has dou

Oct 11, 2017, 11:46 IST HUSSAINIWALA (FEROZPUR): Narcotics smugglers from Pakistan have started using trained divers to cross the International Border (IB) into Indian Punjab, intelligence sources have said. After the Border Security Force (BSF) stepped up its vigil, smugglers have started employing divers to navigate a 35km riverine area in Punjab's Ferozpur, Gurdaspur and Amritsar sectors of the IB. BSF had recently introduced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), laser walls and thermal imagers along with larger deployment of men along the border to squeeze out the drug supply. BSF, which guards a 553km (518 km land and 33 km riverine) stretch of the IB along Punjab, has seized 729 kg narcotics (mostly heroin) worth hundreds of crores in the past three years. The highest recovery of 340 kg was made from Ferozpur sector. The new method to pump drugs into the state was discovered during the interrogation of a peddler, who said his consignment was delivered to him by a

Oct 11, 2017, 02:37 IST NEW DELHI: In a move to ensure efficacy of medicines sold in India, the drug regulator has made it mandatory for companies to include Indian patients in global clinical trials if they want to market in India a new drug developed outside the country. The decision was taken in a recent technical committee meeting, headed by director general of health services Jagdish Prasad. The committee, which was formed following directions from the Supreme Court, has a mandate to supervise clinical trials on new chemical entities. "Any firm intending to market a new drug which is being developed outside the country, should include Indian patients in the global clinical trial...," the minutes of the meeting, reviewed by TOI, said. The committee also decided that if proposal of such global clinical trials are already approved in ICH countries such as the US, Europe and Japan, then it will be reviewed on priority by the Indian drug regulator. The I