(In the weekly Health Matters newsletter, Ramya Kannan writes about getting to good health, and staying there. You can subscribe here to get the newsletter in your inbox.)

With stunning regularity in recent years, headlines in India are swept up by news on spurious drugs being sold, poor quality, or contaminated drugs causing hospitalisations and even deaths, and periodic updates from the cops on fake drug busts. If you thought the periodicity of these complaints might have numbed us to what is happening in the pharma sector in the country, well, you have that wrong. 

Last week, the exposé of a thriving network re-labelling and repackaging expired drugs as expensive, imported, life-saving medicines used in cancer treatment and in the ICUs, gave any complacence a big jolt. In a farmhouse near Bidadi, the police found a veritable cottage industry doing the repackaging, with its tentacles spread to over 90 hospitals in the State. Indications were that the fraudulent business had been happening for years, and several private hospitals were involved as well. 

Shilpa Elizabeth and Imran Gowhar explain this bust; moreover, they try to make sense of what had been happening in terms of supplying fake drugs to hospitals, and what could have been the impact. Read the long-form article here: A dangerous dose of deception in Karnataka and beyond. Also read The Hindu’s editorial on the subject, here: Antidote to Drugs.

Further expanding the concept of patient safety, in the context of World Patient Safety Day, we did a number ofstories hinging on safety of drugs and monitoring at pharmacies, besides creating hospital checklists. In this article, Athira Elssa Johnson takes on polypharmacy, head on. Why taking multiple medicines needs close monitoring is the question she answers here, in consultation with experts. 

Further, Bindu Shajan Perappadan reported that CCTVs have been proposed at medical stores for sale of prescription drugs. This move is aimed at strengthening oversight of the sale of prescription medicines and providing a mechanism to verify transactions in cases of suspected unauthorised sale. Yohaan Varghese noted that 71% of consumers in Mumbai were rarely asked to produce prescriptions, based on the findings of a survey; and wrote that the Maharashtra FDA acted against 880 drug licensees in three months.

Siddharth Kumar Singh added to the debate,recording what happens in neighbourhood medical stores despite all the rules about what drugs can be sold over the counter in Hyderabad, here.He also wrote on the need for exhaustive hospital checklists to ensure patient safety there. 

The question of availability and accessibility to drugs, not just drug quality are relevant in a country like India. Here, we report on a study that attempted to find out how India made expensive diabetes medicines affordable.

Whichever way we look at it, the climate angle of health care is difficult to ignore, particularly with winter approaching. A recent study, linked air pollution to death by suicide and suicidal thoughts. Researchers explained that air pollutants and water polluted with arsenic, lead, lithium or nitrate, have been linked to neurological effects, including chronic inflammation and nerve damage, which can impair brain function and influence mood and stress resilience.

Dhinesh Kallungal wrote that climate change had increased the dengue risk in Keralam; cases may rise by 20% by 2040, as per a study.

While you are at it, watch our video where schools have been advised to suspend outdoor sports in November and December in the Delhi-NCR region, because of air pollution.

More on drugs, this time, the flip side. A lot of news in the pharma and research and development front have emerged this past week. Read on: Dr. Reddy’s, Takeda Pharma inked a pact to distribute India’s first dengue vaccine QDENGA

Again, more news on Dr. Reddy’s - the pharma major has forayed into India’s biosimilar immuno-oncology market, with the launch of Nivorz. Nivorz is one of the immunotherapy agents with the broadest range of approved indications in oncology in India. The approved indications span early-stage, locally advanced, recurrent and metastatic disease settings across both solid and hematological malignancies, the company said.

Meanwhile, Aurobindo Pharma won the U.S. FDA approval for generic asthma inhaler; and the drug regulator issues an alert on sale of unauthorised Pakistani whitening creams in India.

IIT Palakkad researchers have developed sensors for faster heparin monitoring, we reported. 

In interesting news in indigenous innovation and the complex field of elder care, researchers at RGCB in Keralam develop nanopore sensors for early detection of Parkinson’s disease. The team has designed ‘self-assembling dual-diameter’ nanopore sensors that are capable of detecting biomarkers linked to neurodegenerative diseases with high sensitivity.

As World Alzheimer’s Day was observed on September 21, here is an article on how blood tests are advancing diagnosis. But what is it that they can really tell us? Read on, here.

And since questions of diet, and what the right food mix must be, seem to be popular these days, do read our stories on the subject. I wrote on Tamil Nadu’s campaign to reduce the intake of salt from a health perspective. 

In last Sunday’s HealthWatch episode, we also dealt with the components of a healthy diet, what protein contributes to your diet, how it does it and why people insist on having a protein input with every meal. 

Continuing further on the big issue of front of pack labelling for processed foods, since FSSAI submitted guidelines to the court, we reported that India was open to stricter red warnings on food packs in the latest setback for companies.

We have many more stories. Find a few of them here, below:

Dr. Shivakumar S. Pail on Why we need to focus on the gender disparity in organ transplantation

Afshan YasmeenFor people with treatment-resistant anxiety, dual nerve block procedure may help, finds study  

Dr. Prachi BenaraCan high prolactin be linked to repeated pregnancy loss or PMOS?

Nikhil SreekandanRattlesnake blood could reinvent the fight against deadly venoms 

Stem cell therapy for autism only in approved clinical trials: Centre

Zubeda Hamid explains All you need to know about: nosebleeds and scrub typhus

With World Heart Day coming up, Dr. Dinesh Arab on how New, sophisticated drugs did not move the needle on hearts attacks, strokes

In the Say Her Name series, profiling Asima Chatterjee: An Indian woman phytochemist without parallel

(There is much more to read, do head to ourhealth pageand subscribe to the health newsletterhere)