In a first-ever initiative to bring down prices of expensive cancer medication, the government plans to retail them through its ‘Jan Aushadhi’ stores, which offer essential ‘unbranded’ drugs at discounted rates. It has already initiated talks with domestic pharma companies to procure cancer drugs.

A five-day winter school on “Nanotechnology in Advance Drug Delivery” was opened at the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in Mohali on Monday. Prof N Sathyamurthy, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, inaugurated the third winter school.

Gujarat could attract fresh investment worth Rs 5,000 crore in the pharmaceuticals sector, if the excise on pharma products, currently 4 per cent, was removed, the Gujarat wing of the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA) believes.

In a recent reversal, operations abroad are hampering profit.