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Hindustan Times
17 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Vinay Prasad Is a Bernie Sanders Acolyte in MAHA Drag
Meet Vinay Prasad, a young disciple of Bernie Sanders who ranks as one of the most powerful officials in the federal government. He determines whether patients get access to many life-saving medicines. Or not. Think of him as a one-man death panel. Dr. Prasad was named by Marty Makary, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, as head of the agency's biologics division in May, and last month as its chief medical and scientific officer. More on why he was tapped to these posts later. But it isn't an exaggeration to say that Dr. Prasad wields more power than Anthony Fauci ever did at the National Institutes of Health. Vinay Prasad. Like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Prasad thinks he knows what's best for people, and that it's government's job to make it happen. 'I favor a strong regulatory state,' he proudly professes. And just as Dr. Fauci slowed experimental HIV treatments during the 1980s by rigidly adhering to strict trial protocols, Dr. Prasad is now scuttling potentially life-saving therapies. In recent weeks, the FDA has rejected three therapies for debilitating diseases that have shown promise in clinical trials. The agency has also forced off the market a gene therapy that can slow the degenerative loss of muscular function in young boys with certain genetic mutations. Behold America's strong and arbitrary regulatory state at work. If you read Dr. Prasad's paper—or follow his smash-mouth Substack and feeds—the FDA's recent actions are no surprise. Dr. Prasad has long criticized the FDA for approving too many treatments that, in his view, provide only marginal benefits. He's also lambasted President Trump's first-term 'right to try' law, which lets terminally ill patients try experimental drugs not yet approved by the FDA. 'It is crucial to question whether non-curative therapies . . . are worth it,' Dr. Prasad wrote in a 2021 paper about an FDA-approved cell therapy for multiple myeloma. The therapy reduced disease progression or death by half in patients with advanced cancers who hadn't responded to already approved therapies. Impressive. But Dr. Prasad complained that the treatment was pricey (then $419,500 for a course) and may 'only delay inevitable progression' in some patients. In other words, sick patients should just give up and die. Got that? In 2016 he wrote an op-ed titled 'The case for rationing: Why we should limit public spending on cancer drugs.' He exalted the United Kingdom's socialized health system for restricting access to new treatments until they demonstrate a high degree of efficacy in multiple trials and that their benefits—as determined by the government—exceed their costs. Such government rationing is why survival rates for hard-to-treat cancers are much lower in the U.K. than in America—and why British patients with the financial means cross the pond to receive innovative and often life-saving treatments. Tough luck to Brits of average means. Of course, Dr. Prasad insists he really has patients' best interests at heart. Why would terminally ill patients want to waste their precious remaining time on earth schlepping to hospitals for treatments that may not cure them when they could be preparing for their deaths? That's the gist of his 2022 paper, which estimated patients with advanced cancers spend 16 more hours a month accessing and receiving novel treatments than if they accepted hospice or home palliative care. 'Time is a valuable resource for people who have cancer,' the paper noted. Yes, and that's why they want to continue living. He has also argued that 'genome-informed cancer medicine'—treatments targeted based on a patient's genes or tumor mutations—'is mostly hype,' no matter that such treatments have produced most recent improvements in cancer survival. Take CAR T-Cell therapies that re-engineer a patient's immune cells to target proteins on tumor cells. Such therapies can cure aggressive cancers that not long ago carried a death sentence, though Dr. Prasad has hyped their side effects. He has done the same for Sarepta Therapeutics' Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy, which the agency this month forced off the market after two patients in the advanced stages of the disease died from apparent side effects. The deaths look to have been a pretext for Dr. Prasad to deep-six the drug, which he had previously criticized as too costly for its benefits. Most treatments carry rare, life-threatening side effects, but doctors and patients can weigh their risks against their benefits. Perhaps Dr. Prasad doesn't trust people to do so any more than Dr. Fauci did. Dr. Prasad found common cause with Dr. Makary and conservatives in opposing paternalistic Covid policies including vaccine mandates and school shutdowns. But his other positions are at odds with Dr. Makary's stated support for more flexible reviews of drugs that treat rare and deadly diseases and the MAHA ethos of patient empowerment. Dr. Makary in spring 2021 lambasted the FDA for using the 'eternal excuse of safety' to pause the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine after a rare blood-clotting side effect cropped up, mostly in middle-aged women. 'This is a life-saving medication,' he then wrote. 'What ever happened to giving people the data and letting them make their own health decisions?'
Time of India
15 hours ago
- Time of India
Late Bhanutai Gadkari Memorial Diagnostic Centre inaugurated: MRI at Rs1,200, CT Scan at Rs800, X-ray at Rs100
Nagpur: A state-of-the-art 6,000 sq ft facility in north Nagpur will be offering essential diagnostic and dialysis services at some of the lowest rates in the country — MRI for Rs1,200, CT Scan for Rs800, and digital X-ray for just Rs100, and major blood tests at Rs300, which otherwise cost thousands. Remarkably, it is India's first diagnostic centre equipped entirely with "Made-in-India" machines. The late Bhanutai Gadkari Memorial Diagnostic Centre, which was inaugurated on Sunday, has come as a major boost for healthcare infrastructure in north Nagpur. Located at Kamal Chowk, Lashkaribagh, the centre is dedicated to memory of Bhanutai Gadkari, mother of Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, who presided over the programme when chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the facility. "This diagnostic centre will be a milestone in the healthcare sector. Combining empathy with service, it sets an example of how indigenous technology can be used to bring down the cost of essential diagnostics for the common man," said Fadnavis while praising Gadkari's initiative. Gadkari, on an emotional note, said that the centre is not a commercial project, but a service mission inspired by his mother's legacy for compassion and empathy. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Your IQ Is 140 If You Can Answer 10 of These Questions Correctly. IQ International Undo by Taboola by Taboola "From my first day in public life, her blessings guided me to serve the poor and suffering," said Gadkari and made an appeal to include bone marrow, sickle cell and thalassaemia treatments under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana. The fully air-conditioned centre, run by the late Bhanutai Gadkari Gramin Vikas Sanstha, features a modern waiting area, paperless operations, high-capacity servers, and trained technical staff. All MRI and CT scan machines have been manufactured in India, in collaboration with AMTZ (Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone), significantly cutting costs compared to imported equipment. "This is the first time in India that a diagnostic centre has been established with 100% indigenous machines. We used to import MRI machines for Rs6 crore. Now, we are making them at Rs2 crore and exporting them too," said Dr Jitendra Sharma, managing director of AMTZ. # WHAT CENTRE OFFERS MRI – Rs1,200: High-end 1.5 Tesla imaging with 16-channel MUSIC technology ensuring quick scans with excellent image quality CT Scan — Rs800: BIS, AERB and CDSCO-approved fast scanning machines. Full chest scans done in just 6 seconds Digital X-ray — Rs100; high-resolution, modern digital imaging Dialysis — Rs750 standard, only Rs250 if NMC provides ₹500 subsidy—free dialysis for donor-backed patients Pathology Tests — Rs300; over 40 common tests included Pharmacy — Generic medicines available at 10% discount
NDTV
20 hours ago
- NDTV
Centre Flags Carcinogen Fears On Acidity Medicine Ranitidine, Orders Probe
New Delhi: The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has directed all state and union territory drug regulators to ensure manufacturers of Ranitidine -- a commonly used acidity medicine --monitor NDMA levels, a potentially cancer-causing impurity, in both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and formulations of the drug. The CDSCO has also suggested reducing the shelf life as a precautionary step. The move comes from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, following a recommendation by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) during its 92nd meeting on April 28, 2025. The Board reviewed a report submitted by an expert committee constituted in December last year to study the impurity concerns around Ranitidine. Based on this, DTAB has called for a larger committee to examine all aspects of the issue, including storage conditions that may contribute to NDMA formation. In addition, the Board recommended that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conduct a study to further assess the long-term safety of Ranitidine in light of NDMA presence. Manufacturers have now been told to adopt risk-based measures, such as limiting shelf life, modifying storage recommendations, and enhancing NDMA testing protocols across their supply chains. "Ranitidine falls in the Group 2A carcinogen category, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which implies that it is a probable human carcinogen. It should not be continued in prescription when there are safer alternatives such as Famotidine and Pantoprazole available," said Dr Abhishek Shankar, Oncologist, AIIMS Delhi. NDMA is classified as a probable human carcinogen, and its presence in medications has triggered global regulatory scrutiny over recent years. Ranitidine, commonly prescribed for acid reflux and ulcers, was withdrawn from several markets, including the US, after alarmingly high levels of NDMA were found in some samples. "Ranitidine was commonly prescribed in the past. Its usage has reduced in most metro cities, but it is still prescribed in Tier 1 or 2 cities, particularly at primary healthcare centres. In my knowledge, the drug has been known to have NDMA impurities; the FDA has also ruled out the use of this drug in large doses. The DGCI needs to set prescribed limits for NDMA levels in this drug," said Dr Lohit Chauhan, Gastroenterologist at Max Dwarka.
