Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called on the TB Alliance (TBA), a non-profit TB drug development organisation, and its commercial partner pharmaceutical corporation Mylan, to further lower the price of pretomanid drug, as it is just one part of a regimen of multiple drugs that people need.

The Global Drug Facility has just announced a price of US$364 for a six-month treatment course of pretomanid, only the third new drug developed for TB in half a century. Pretomanid was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration in August 2019. Pretomanid was developed by the TB Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation, funded by governments (e.g. Australia, Germany, the UK and the US) and philanthropic sources. It is the first TB drug to be developed and approved as part of a ready-to-use treatment regimen (BPaL: bedaquiline + pretomanid + high-dose linezolid) for people with extensively drug resistant (XDR)-TB, treatment-intolerant, or nonresponsive multidrug-resistant pulmonary TB. This new regimen has the potential to dramatically shorten treatment length to six months, greatly reduce the number of pills required, and helps increase XDR-TB cure rates from the abysmal 39%.

In light of the price reduction announcement, the lowest global price for a 6-month course of BPaL regimen is US$1,040, which is double what MSF is calling for. MSF has been calling for the price of a complete DR-TB treatment course to be no higher than $500 per person.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have estimated that generic versions of pretomanid could be produced and sold at a profit for less than $1.35 a day, or less than $35 a month, a statement issued by MSF has said.

The high price of one of the other newer TB drugs, bedaquiline, at $400 for a six-month treatment course will also impede the uptake of the BPaL regimen in high TB burden countries. MSF has launched a global campaign calling on pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to lower the price of bedaquiline to no more than US$1 per day ($200 for six months, or half of what J&J currently charges). 

Furthermore, the TB Alliance must also support or carry out research to address outstanding medical questions concerning the safety and efficacy of its drug independent of the BPaL regimen and in comparison to another drug in the same class, as well its suitability for different populations including children, pregnant women, and people living with HIV receiving the antiretroviral dolutegravir, the statement has said.

The President has appointed Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Judge of the Supreme Court as the next Chief Justice of India with effect from November 18, 2019.

Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde has been a Judge of the Supreme Court since April 12, 2013. Earlier he served as the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court for about six months since October 16, 2012. He has also been an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court from March 29, 2000 and a Permanent Judge from March 28, 2002.

Justice Bobde, born on April 24, 1956, was enrolled as an Advocate on September 13, 1978. He started his practice at the High Court Bench at Nagpur and the District Court at Nagpur and occasionally at the High Court at Bombay and the Supreme Court of India in civil, constitutional, labour, company, election and taxation matters. He specialized in constitutional, administrative, company, environmental and election laws.

The Alliance Against Conflict of Interest (AACI)—an alliance of organisations and individuals working in various sector aimed at having a legal protection from conflict of interests in all sectors in public policy – has asked the government and the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to recall its role as the regulator and move away from voluntary pledges and self-regulation towards stronger public policies and programmes to protect public health; including a law to identify, prevent and manage conflicts of interest.

As the private sector is well represented on the Authority by law, so there is no need to have other formal arrangements with private companies in fulfilling the mandate of FSSAI.

Responding to the Executive Director (Compliance Strategy), FSSAI on the Authority’s draft of the “Working with the Private Sector’’, the Alliance has said the Authority should be focussed on preventing an undue influence of business sector /private sector on public policies. “FSSAI should follow basic set of principles enshrined in the constitution of India, guidelines for prevention /management of conflicts of interest and follow its own law. By not doing so, its credibility will be put at stake. Keeping independent from commercial interests is an important task for FSSAI,’’ it said.

Having read the draft of the “Working with the Private Sector”, the Alliance has said: “it sounds more like a facilitating the work of private sector to interfere in the public policy making rather than protecting the health and wellbeing of the consumers. Here we give the example of Singapore, which is very fresh action banning the advertisements that promote high sugar drinks; a more clear action expected from a regulatory body. With the proposed participation partnership with the food industry in the regulatory planning, is a fundamental and institutional conflicts of interest.’’

We find this guideline in present form creates conflicts of interest at FSSAI, the response said while pointing out that the current draft fails to provide an answer to prevention of conflicts of interest at all, which is worrying. “Food industry has no business to be part of implementing nutrition action. Going by this principle food industry should not be sitting on any table that talks about HOW nutrition/food/diet action be implemented,’’ the AACI has said.

Drawing attention towards the studies mentioned in the draft note of FSSAI, the Alliance has said that the analyses were conducted in 2014. Findings indicated that no significant improvement in the overall nutritional quality of foods marketed to children has been achieved since industry self-regulation was adopted. In 2013, 80.5% of all foods advertised to children on TV were for products in the poorest nutritional category, and thus pose high risk for contributing to obesity.

“The lack of significant improvement in the nutritional quality of food marketed to children is likely a result of the weak nutritional standards for defining healthy foods employed by industry, and because a substantial proportion of child-oriented food marketers do not participate in self-regulation. The lack of success achieved by self-regulation indicates that other policy actions are needed to effectively reduce children’s exposure to obesogenic food advertising.”

AACI believes that FSSAI may in fact ‘interact’ with or sought opinion from food industry on some minimum standards e.g. to facilitate implementation of the regulations such as labelling or marketing or else related to maintaining safely of food and ensure that no damage is done to public health. Therefore, to keep public interest in the centre, and ensure full accountability and transparency, we like to quote here “FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety”.

Drawing attention to the Supreme Court of India’s order directing that scientific panels of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) should not have representatives of the industry but independent experts in consonance with the section 13(1) of the FSSAI Act 2006, the Alliance has said honouring the spirit of the judgement, therefore, question does not arise that FSSAI violates its own law by including representatives of the food industry in the CAC or other frameworks.

Pointing out that the FSSAI’s primary role is to ensure availability of safe foods to the consumers through development of robust standards and monitoring their compliance, the Alliance has asked the Authority to work according to these principles and ensures that conflicts of interests are avoided by a process in writing in its functioning. When FSSAI assesses that conflicts of interest is not avoidable, it must manage it to protect public health. The food industry continues to make pledges, but is reluctant to follow regulations. With increasing evidence of risks to public health due to high sugar and high salt foods as well as ultra-processed foods, there is a need to have a non-partisan, uncompromised regulator of food Safety and standards in India. This is crucial to thwart the market’s influences on the way people eat by having adequate safeguards on package labeling, advertising and pricing, it said.

Further, FSSAI should not only follow the public interest principles, it should seem to follow as well. Having any partnership of any kind with food industry is highly troublesome for public health. Such association is normally meant for manipulation by the food industry.

To resist, FSSAI can only work through sound principles of avoiding conflicts of interest but not partner with the industry. The FSSAI and other Government of India departments have to ensure regulation for safety of food and inform people what is right.

The FSSAI should strengthen its institutional capacity to identify/ assess potential conflicts of interests as well as manage by exclusion from participation. When a Public Private Partnership or any committee decides to invite partnership with the private sector, FSSAI should ensure an independent assessment and evaluation of the work done and make it transparent, it said.

Actor and director Gagan Summy from Sonipat Haryana have been running one of the top YouTube channels of the country which is about to join the ace digital league. His journey has not been an easy one having to face a number of hurdles but leaving no stone unturned Gagan had an aim and was on to complete it. 

Gagan Started His YouTube Channel In 2016 With A Hope To Spread Smile Across The Country But Soon His Videos Got Viral On YouTube He Has His Many Viral Videos For Which He His Known. Video Named Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover Got Viral On You Tuber And Crossed 17 Million Views and Another Video Title Desi Hu Gareeb Nahi again Got so Much Love From The People with 12 Million views. Gagan Summy YouTube Channel Have Crossed 800K Subscribes. Today he has achieved a commendable position in the digital market world and has a number of big-budget projects in the pipeline.YouTube content creation has always been a task to accomplish having tremendous competition in the market but the ones gaining excellence in this field would succeed.

Entrepreneurship is not everyone’s cup of tea. It calls for a lot of hard work, dedication and considerably her ‘never give up’ perspective. One of the inspiring women who substantiated that one cannot be an entrepreneur overnight.

Khuloud Alsawa is a 42-year-old entrepreneur from Syria currently residing in London. She is a true epitome of determination and an ambitious woman with a desire for achieving enormous. Her work defines her best, the inherent skills and strategies regarding the entrepreneurial sphere made her a dynamic personality bearing her own essence of creativeness. Nonetheless, she is 42, her voyage of attainment is not overnight her hard chore and passionate attitude lead her on the unceasing path of accomplishment. Now, after attaining years of experience in her chore she is all set to elevate her work at the prime stage. She believes that if one is an entrepreneur then he/she should focus on his long term objectives and try to make the best out of worst.

Her optimistic philosophy and business perspective made her an affluent entrepreneur today. Her inspiring and motivating beliefs segregate her from the populace, thus she is setting a perfect instance for the youngster. She is flourishing well on the foundation of her hard work and day by day heightening her work by strengthening her entrepreneurial skills.

For her ideology of work hard and leave no stone unturned we cherish her conceptions and wish her good luck for her destiny

Are you one of those people who cannot start the day without a cup of coffee? Are your meals incomplete without that big glass of cola? According to a survey, hundreds and thousands of people all over the world drink a minimum of two cups of coffee daily. While it surely stimulates the mind and body, it can have adverse effects on both. The same goes for cola or any carbonated beverage, for that matter. While all dentists strongly recommend to stop or limit the consumption of both, people do tend to ignore it. Dr. Namrata Jadwani, a gold medal holder in dentistry, explains the consequences of coffee and cola on our health.

Dr. Jadwani is a new-age dentist from Mumbai who not only excels in her field but also spreads awareness about dental hygiene. She says, “Drinking cola or coffee on an everyday basis can cause enamel erosion, discoloration, bad breath and in extreme cases, teeth falling out.” Cola is filled with acid and causes tooth erosion which over a period of time can lead to complete wearing of the teeth which would require extensive rehabilitation. Dr. Jadwani recommends to always have a glass of water and rinse out after consuming cola, and not to brush immediately. 

She also adds, “Immediately rinsing the mouth after consuming coffee or cola greatly reduces risks to dental health. Additionally, visiting your dentist for a check-up at least once every six months is essential for the overall health of teeth and gums”. Her Instagram account @dr.namratajadwani has more than 6k followers, which features success stories and dental information. Many of her cases are related to caffeine-related discoloration, and the transformation stories are up on her Instagram account for everyone to see for themselves. As per Dr. Jadwani, coffee causes a lot of stains, discoloration of the teeth, immense bad breath and a film on the tongue which causes the odor and a bad taste. 

Besides informative videos, her handle also features motivational and fun posts. 

Dr. Jadwani has won numerous accolades for her work in dentistry and recently won the Women Achiever’s Award. Her private practice goes by the name of The Smylist and is one of the most preferred names among celebrities. Dr. Jadwani is also known for devoting her time to social work, which includes providing free services to underprivileged children.

Indian culture was designed consciously for the inner well being of a human being and inspired by this, Brosnan, a social influencer and Youtuber, has decided to portray Indian culture in the form of a Bollywood film.

As Mahatma Gandhi said “A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people”, Brosnan is traveling India and meeting people to know more about the varied and diversified Indian culture.

He said, “The more I am knowing, the more I am drowning in it,” adding that the Indian culture is the most ancient, widespread, varied and have its own geographic, ethnic and religious background.

Brosnan is a famous YouTuber and he is a sucker of traveling. He can ditch almost anything to travel and that is where he meets new people and gets to know about them. During his recent visit to India, he was so mesmerized after visiting various places and knowing different traditions and rituals followed here. He decided to make a film on it.

Sources close to Brosnan have informed that he is in talks with couple of top filmmakers in the industry and soon will come out with details regarding it.

Speaking about the film, Brosnan said, “It would be a mainstream cinema and will have a large budget because it will cover the various shades of the Indian culture. It would be a multistarrer film, each one of them portraying different traditions.”

When asked about revealing the names of stars, he said, “It would be too early to reveal as things are on the research stage right now. Once something is finalized, you will get to know about it.”

Brosnan is a lover of photography and this can be observed if you go through his Instagram profile. You will get see some of the finest shots of beautiful landscapes, exclusively captured by Brosnan himself.

Brosnan has a huge fan base on social media platforms, especially on Instagram. He has thousands of followers and one good thing about Brosnan is that he manages all his social handles by himself. He keeps the conversation alive with his fans and never disheartens any of his followers. He regularly remains active and replies to the fans’ queries and conversations.

Brosnan is a home name in the YouTube business. He has millions of subscribers on his Youtube account and his videos are just awesome. Now his fans are eagerly waiting for his film and have already started sending him good wishes.

Few people are a real sucker for adventure and they ditch it all to travel the world. One such person is Chase Norton, who undoubtedly is an inspiration for budding traveler and explorer.

Chase not only loves to cross oceans but he also chose to make this his profession. Chase Norton is restless ball of energy and has a passion for heritage destinations.  He is now in India to shoot a short film where he will portray his experiences of various places he visited in the country.

He also has a passion for photography. He has a collection of thousands of photographs which he have taken while traveling. He will also use some of his pictures in his short movie.

He, himself, will don the director’s cap for the short film that has been titled as ‘India Explored’. The film, as the name suggests, will glorify India and the culture it boasts through its historical monuments and ancient as well as modern architectures.

Chase Norton is one of those travelers who love to explore the lesser explored parts of the world. He visits places, talks to people, goes deep into its history and then shares his experience to the world.

Talking about the film, Chase said, “‘India Explored’ is my idea of flaunting India’s true essence which lies in its ancient monuments. While traveling the country, I found many such places which could be great tourist destinations in the world if we bring them close to people.”

Short movie has few established actors from the industry that will definitely give a boost to the film. When asked about what else the film will portray? Chase Norton said, “We will also meet the diverse Indian culture in the film. We will present people from various cultures, caste and creeds and it will for sure the essence of an ‘Incredible India’.”

If you are having a tough day, just go through the social profiles of Chase Norton. The beautiful landscapes, streets and architectures from across the world will not let you go from his profiles.

When asked why a short film and why not mainstream cinema? Chase Norton said, “Short Films have their own audience and they give credit to good content.”

When asked about why India? Chase Norton recalled the famous quote from Mark Twaine which read, “India is the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.”

Bollywood has observed a lot of experiments in the past few years but one genre which still lacks is ‘cartoon’ or animation films. There is one man Gabriel Robert who takes this challenge and is ready to make a big-budget cartoon film based in Bollywood.

Gabriel Robert will sport the director’s cap for the film which will be one of its kind cartoon films of Bollywood.

He is in talks with the animation studios to make the film look realistic. These films have a less success rate in Bollywood but the confident Gabriel Robert feels that moviegoers in India is desperate to see something different and his film will not only be a commercial success but it will also 

receive acclaims from the critics.

When asked why a cartoon film? He said, “I personally feel that this genre has been left untouched by Bollywood filmmakers. I love cartoon characters since my childhood. Hence, I will live my dreams with this film. Making it would be a dream come true experience for me.”

Robert has a huge fan following on social media networks and he has thousands of followers on his Instagram profile. His Instagram Display Picture (DP) is a proof that how much he loves cartoons.

Sources close to the director informed that he is in talks with top Bollywood producers and something good will soon come out. The film will have voices of various Bollywood actors who will not use their own voice but sound like cartoon characters. Some talented voice-over artists have been contacted for the film.

Gabriel said, “You will get to see Hollywood like animation in the film and a completely new cartoon character will come to life. The target audience certainly would be kids but adults too will love to watch the film.”

It has been heard that film will have essence of Bollywood to keep it entertaining for the Indian film lovers and also woo a big audience. The cartoon film will be released in various countries and it will be dubbed in various languages including the regional ones.

Bollywood has not done many experiments in this field and few films on the topic have faced set back at the Bollywood Box Office. In such a case it definitely would be a risky affair for Gabriel Robert we hope that the film would be fun to watch.

The film is slated for March 2020 release and shooting for the same will begin very soon.

India is also known for its tourism which in recent years has not only attracted Hollywood filmmakers but also made them invest money. Popular Youtuber Chase Alexander Peters a.k.a Chasenamic is another such name who finds locations and tourism of India enticing.

Chase Alexander Peters is a self-made name in the industry, unlike the other superstars.

He was a huge fan of Hollywood flicks and had immense interest in filmmaking. Luckily, once he was travelling in a metro when he met famous Hollywood director. He saw the talent in young 18-year old Chase and offered him to work as an assistant with him.

Things continued to turn in Chase Peter’s favour and he was unstoppable, thereafter. He directed three films in 2009, 2010 and 2011 which scored fairly well at the Box Office. Apart from the earnings, the films got critical acclaim. Louis credited Chase for films success after which later became cynosure of all eyes.

Chase at the age of 24 started his youtube channel and started working on short films. He, however, also continued working as an assistant director with Louis.

The youtube channel was a huge success on the digital platform. Chase, knowing that this is the era of digital, hit the chord among the audience.

Chase, who had faced some tough times in his childhood, always knew the value of money in the lives of poor. He started donating the money to the poor and also began a donation centre in his village.  

Peter was still unstoppable as his youtube channel garnered more than 30 million subscribers.

After tasting success with his Hollywood projects, Chase took a break and tied knot. They picked India for vacation and went to Uttarakhand. Chase got very much impressed with the culture, locations and tourism of India that he decided to make a film on India tourism.

After spending vacations in Uttarakhand, Chase along with his team visited Varanasi, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Shimla, Nainital and Kashmir to select top locations for the short film.

He was in awe of the tourist destinations in India and was sure to direct a film on it. He loves travelling and this can be observed through his social media profiles.

He is also in talks with some big Bollywood directors who are set to assist the popular American Youtuber in his project. If rumors are to be believed, Chase may cast an Indian actor in the lead.

The shooting will begin from November 2019 in Kashmir.