The Tamilnadu Dr. M.G.R Medical University admisstion to M.Pharm 2010 – 2011

As per Government Order No.50/Health and Family Welfare (MCAI) Department, Dated 24-02-2010 the Entrance Examination shall be conducted for the selection and admission for M.Pharm Course from the Academic year 2010-2011 Session onwards.

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Illegal Net pharmacies in India

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has said India has become one of the main sources of drugs sold through illegally operating Internet pharmacies that despatch orders placed with them from buyers in other countries, using courier or postal services.

In its latest annual report, the Vienna-based Board working under UN auspices says that since 2002, Indian law enforcement agencies have detected and disbanded several groups operating illegal Internet pharmacies.

For example, in 2007, Indian authorities identified a software solutions company allowing illegal transactions involving pharmaceutical preparations to be made over the Internet. The following year, three Internet pharmacies operating in India and illegally selling psychotropic substances to buyers in the US were shut down, the report says, while urging India to put in place measures to prevent the use of the Internet to divert controlled substances.

INCB has also been urging the governments to either prohibit or closely control sales of internationally controlled substances by Internet pharmacies and telephone call centres so that illicit supply channels can be closed.

Stating that the South Asian region has become a location for the manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants, the report says a large number of clandestine methamphetamine laboratories have been discovered in India in recent years. It draws attention to how highly organised and powerful criminal networks are using new processes, routes and substances to keep drug manufacturing operations alive and how, even amid strict controls of chemicals, traffickers are finding ingenious ways to obtain the chemicals they need from legal trade channels.

The INCB report points out that as one of the world's largest manufacturers of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, India remains by far one of the principal sources of these precursor chemicals used in the illicit manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants.

Pharma industry welcomes tax incentives for R & D

Tax incentives given by the Budget for research and development made the Indian pharmaceutical firms sport a smile but they are left wondering if the hike in excise duty to 10 per cent on all non-petroleum products will be applicable to them.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed a weighted tax deduction on expenditure incurred in in-house research and development activities to 200 per cent from the current 150 per cent in the Budget.

"We welcome the government's move to increase weighted tax deduction to 200 per cent as research and development activities is a must and in pharma sector, where it is most urgently required," Indian Drug Manufacturers Association Executive Director Gajanan Wakankar said.
However, lack of clarity on whether the pharma sector would also be covered under the increased excise on all non-petroleum products from 8-10 per cent, held back the sector from celebrating.

Currently, the pharma sector attracts 4 per cent excise duty after CENVAT was cut by 4 per cent in December 2008 as part of a stimulus package.