Ep 245: The Dark Side of Indian Pharma

The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

When we pick up medicine from our nearby chemist, we assume that we are getting what we pay for. That trust may be misplaced. Dinesh Thakur joins Amit Varma in episode 245 of The Seen and the Unseen to share the story of the Ranbaxy fraud, and the shoddy state of Indian pharma today. Also check out: 1. Dinesh Thakur's foundation, blog and Twitter. 2. Bottle of Lies : Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma -- Katherine Eban. 3. The Impact of Regulatory Structure on Quality of Medicines in India -- Talk by Dinesh Thakur. 4. Dinesh Thakur interviewed by News Laundry, Lallantop and The Accad and Koka Report. 5. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is in denial over drug-quality charges -- Dinesh Thakur. 6. Pharma industry’s playbook on low-quality drugs -- Dinesh Thakur and Prashant Reddy Thikkavarapu. 7. India’s drug regulator has failed the pandemic stress test -- Dinesh Thakur. 8. In generic drug plants in China and India, data falsification is still a problem -- Katherine Eban and Sony Salzman. 9. Healing the Pharmacy of the World -- KL Sharma. 10. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 11. Science and Covid-19 -- Episode 221 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Anirban Mahapatra). 12. Slow Ideas -- Atul Gawande. 13. Understanding Indian Healthcare -- Episode 225 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 14. The Economics and Politics of Vaccines -- Episode 223 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 15. We Must Save Our Farmers -- Amit Varma. 16. ‘Killer cough syrup’ maker failed quality tests several times -- Times of India report on the Jammu deaths. 17. Why lethal cough syrup slipped past the law -- Prabha Raghavan and Arun Sharma. 18. COVID-19: Hundreds Of Clinical Trials Under Way In India, Many Lack Rigour, Say Experts -- Anoo Bhuyan. 19. Clinical trial database hole -- GS Mudur. 20. CDSCO faces CIC ire over ‘misplaced’ 2013 report on ‘irregular’ approval to drugs -- Prabha Raghavan. 21. A Report on Drug Regulator CDSCO’s ‘Irregular’ Approvals Has Gone ‘Missing’ -- The Wire staff. 22. New CDSCO Disclosure Reveals Quality of Medicines Sold in India -- Samir Malhotra. 23. On US blacklist, in India they are in the grey zone -- Ritu Sarin, Kaunain Sheriff M and Jaz Mazoomdar. 24. Poor quality drugs caused Niloufer maternal deaths: Doctors' panel -- Syed Akbar. 25. 2014 Bilaspur tubectomy deaths: Absconding pharma firm director held -- PTI news report. 26. Clinical Trials in India Need Better Regulations -- Shah Alam Khan. 27. Mozambique raises quality concerns on Indian drug exports -- Deepak Patel. 28. Drug regulation: 27 medicines sold by top firms ‘fail’ quality tests in seven states -- Deepak Patel. 29. 39 Indian drug companies blacklisted by Vietnam -- Pranshu Rathi. 30. Drugs with carcinogenic toxins: banned elsewhere, sold in India -- Priyanka Pulla. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.