Author: Biotech Express

Altab Khan1, Mohd Riyaz Beg2*, Pramod Waghmare2 1. DBT-ICT Centre for Energy Biosciences, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400019, Maharashtra, India 2. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400019, Maharashtra, India *Corresponding Author: Mohd Riyaz Beg Address: Dept. of Pharm. Sci. & Tech., Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400019,Maharashtra, India Email: mohdriyazbeg@gmail.com Abstract The use of low intensity ultrasound has gotten surprising consideration over the last decade as a method for enhancing the catalytic activity of enzyme.Ultrasounds have the potential to significantly influence the activity of the enzymatic processes, provided that the energy input is…

Germany-based Fresenius Kabi (FKOL) is the kid who was told to clean up their room before mom came home and instead hid the dirty laundry under their bed. Except in this case the dirty laundry was manufacturing records and the mom coming up for inspection was the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Right before the FDA came from an inspection of the company’s manufacturing plant in Kalyani, West Bengal in 2013, court documents say company “management directed employees to remove certain records from the premises and delete other records from computers that would have revealed FKOL was manufacturing drug…

Bihar health secy says huge discrepancies found in Covid-19 test data. Bihar’s principal health secretary Pratyay Amrit on Saturday stated that “serious discrepancies” in Covid-19 test data has been found in Jamui’s Barhat and Sikandra. He also said action has been initiated against concerned officials. Over three days last month, three Primary Health Centres (PHC) in Bihar’s Jamui district tested 588 residents for Covid — all were negative. The name, age and cell number of each person tested was put down in a chart and sent to Patna where it was aggregated with data from other districts to plot the state’s…

India’s finance minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, presented the country’s budget Monday for the fiscal year that begins April 1 and ends March 31, 2022. In her speech to Parliament, she proposed more than doubling India’s health-care and wellbeing spending to 2.2 trillion rupees ($30.1 billion). That includes a new federal scheme with an outlay of 641 billion rupees over six years to develop the country’s capacity for primary, secondary and tertiary care as well as to strengthen national institutions and create new ones to detect and cure new diseases, Sitharaman said. The budget will allocate 350 billion rupees for COVID-19…

The European Commission authorized five genetically modified crops (three maize and two soybeans) and renewed the authorization for three maize crops used for food and feed. All of these GMOs have gone through a comprehensive and stringent authorization procedure, including a favorable scientific assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The authorization decisions do not cover cultivation. Member States did not reach a qualified majority either in favor or against the Standing Committee and the subsequent Appeal Committee. The European Commission has therefore the legal duty to proceed with the authorizations. The authorizations are valid for ten years, and…

While scientists and researchers have been calling for transparency in COVID-19 vaccine-related research data, the Centre, ironically, released the draft version of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (STIP) in December 2020 based on the ethos of “Open Science”. Open Science has emerged as a global movement amidst a growing crisis in science that has affected India as well, and includes issues such as fabrication and falsification of data, plagiarism, unethical authorship, failure to disclose funding sources and gender disparity in research institutions. An interesting example to understand the crisis is the “10,000 steps a day to remain healthy” goal,…

Prof Rajeev K Varshney (born 13 July 1973) is a renowned agricultural scientist who is engaged in discovering, developing, and delivering innovative R&D solutions to tackle wicked problems facing global agriculture. He is currently serving as the Research Program Director – Genetic Gains and Director, Center of Excellence in Genomics and Systems Biology at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India, a global agricultural research institute and a center under CGIAR consortium. He holds Adjunct/Honorary/ Visiting Professor positions at 10 academic institutions in Australia, China, Ghana, Hong Kong, and India. He is an elected fellow…

Introduction This report is based on International Virtual Conference “Supply Chain Challenges of COVID -19 Vaccines: Indian Imperative” that was organized by a consortium of Global Bio Supply Chain Association of Life Sciences, involving the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA), Bio Supply Management Alliance (BSMA) USA and Europe, BIRAC, ABLE, NITIE Mumbai, Indian Oil Corporation and the Institute of Chemical Technology. The fore-running vaccine candidates across the world are reaching the core human trials stages. The global demand is to produce vaccines for 7.8 billion people. The massive challenge is the global distribution and logistics of the vaccine.The vaccines…

by Shrikant Nema1, 2 1Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, ICMR-National Institute of Research in Tribal Health, Jabalpur 482 003, Madhya Pradesh, India 2School of Biotechnology, Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidhalya (State Technological University of Madhya Pradesh), Bhopal, 462 023, Madhya Pradesh, India Correspondence: shrikantnema2014@gmail.com Abstract Plasmodium vivax malaria is usually considered benign and has been neglected for so many years. However, this perception has changed in recent years due to the increase in the number of severe vivax malaria cases and associated deaths across the globe where malaria is endemic. The rising numbers of severe vivax malaria cases, diagnosis, relapse & re-infections…

A year back on December 31, 2019, China has reported pneumonia-like cases in Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Chinese media on January 11, 2020, reported the first death due to the virus infection. On the next day, based on Next-generation sequencing results, Chinese authorities confirmed that the virus cluster is associated with coronavirus and termed this novel strain as a ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2’ (SARS-CoV-2), also known as a COVID-19. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared a coronavirus outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, by then at least…