Students from various organisation protest over the NEET-UG and UGC-NET examinations issue outside Ministry of Education in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

NEET-PG postponed, CBI to probe NEET-UG allegations, NTA chief removed, as panel set up for agency overhaul

With questions being raised about the “integrity of certain competitive examinations”, the Health Ministry announced the postponement of the NEET-PG entrance examination “as a precautionary measure”, just hours before it was due to be held on June 23 morning. This followed on the heels of decision to remove Subodh Kumar Singh from his position as Director-General of the National Testing Agency, which has come under fire for an alleged paper leak and irregularities in the NEET-UG examination, and other examinations which it conducts.

1,563 candidates to retake NEET-UG on June 23

The retest is being conducted after the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the scorecards of 1,563 students who were granted compensatory marks for loss of time due to a delay in six centres in Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Chandigarh.

Six arrested in Jharkhand in NEET case; Sanjeev Mukhiya kingpin, says Economic Offences Unit

Investigation into the NEET paper leak case led the Bihar Police to neighbouring Jharkhand where police arrested six people from Deoghar on Friday night. A team led by officials of the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) brought the six to Patna for questioning. Deoghar Police said five Nalanda residents Paramjit Singh, Baldev Kumar, Prashant Kumar, Ajit Kumar, Rajiv Kumar, and one Panku Kumar, were arrested from a house near AIIMS-Deoghar.

Erred in not crediting ICMR as co-inventor of Covaxin, says Bharat Biotech

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) and manufacturer of Covaxin, India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, said it had made an “inadvertent mistake” in not including scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as ‘co-inventors’ in patent applications filed in India and abroad to protect the intellectual property rights around the vaccine. It would include their names in fresh filings for patent purposes, it said in a statement late on Saturday.

BSF to recalibrate deployment along Pakistan border in Jammu in the wake of terror strikes

The Border Security Force (BSF) is likely to “recalibrate deployment” along the Pakistan border in Jammu, in the wake of at least four terror strikes in the past few weeks .In just four days, between June 9 and June 12, ten people — including a jawan from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) — were killed in militant attacks in the Reasi, Doda, and Kathua districts.

PM Modi likely to skip SCO summit in Kazakhstan in July; Putin, Xi, Sharif may attend

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to skip the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held in Kazakhstan next month, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is expected to officiate in his place. According to sources aware of the decision, Mr. Modi has decided not to travel to Astana for the summit to be held on July 3-4, although he had earlier confirmed his presence, and an advance security team had conducted its reconnaissance survey there. 

Hinduja family ‘appalled’ by jail term order; files appeal in higher court

Britain’s wealthiest family, the Hindujas, have said they were “appalled” by a Swiss court’s ruling of jail terms for some members and have filed an appeal in a higher court challenging the verdict finding them guilty of exploiting vulnerable domestic workers from India at their villa in Geneva. In a statement issued on behalf of the family on Friday, lawyers from Switzerland stressed their clients – Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, both in their 70s and their son Ajay and his wife Namrata – had been acquitted of all human trafficking charges.

ICC T20 World Cup 2024: Hardik, Kuldeep sparkle as India outclass Bangladesh by 50 runs, move closer to semis

Hardik Pandya produced an all-round show while Kuldeep Yadav foxed Bangladesh batters with his guile as India all but assured themselves of a semifinals berth through a dominant 50-run victory in their second Super 8 game of the T20 World Cup here on Saturday.

Euro 2024: Schick saves Czech Republic in draw against gutsy Georgia

Patrik Schick chested home to earn the Czech Republic a 1-1 draw against debutants Georgia on June 22 in an entertaining match, but it leaves both teams in a tricky spot in Euro 2024 Group F. 

Archery World Cup Stage 3 | Indian women trio claim gold

The Indian trio of V. Jyothi Surekha, Parneet Kaur and Aditi Swami claimed its third consecutive compound women’s team gold medal of the season in the Archery World Cup Stage-3 in Antalya, Turkey, on Saturday.

The ICMR said that while it had not funded the Bharat Biotech for Covaxin development, one of its institutes — the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune — had spent “funds for Covaxin development“. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

India’s first indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine, Covaxin, was a joint collaboration between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) with intellectual property (IP) rights jointly shared between the two organisations. That is what the public record states. However, filings by the BBIL at patent offices in India, the United States and Europe suggest that only its scientists and personnel are credited as ‘inventors’ of the vaccine with no mention of ICMR scientists.

The Hindu has viewed documents detailing these patent applications. If BBIL personnel, credited in applications as Deepak Kumar and Krishna Murthy Ella — Chairman and Founder, BBIL— are indeed the only inventors, it contradicts a statement by the Union Health Ministry, the nodal Ministry of the ICMR, in the Rajya Sabha, which claimed that the IP rights are “jointly owned”.

In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 2021 by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who demanded details of the agreement between the ICMR and the BBIL for the development of Covaxin, the then Minister of State (Health Ministry) Bharati Pravin Pawar laid out a detailed response.

The Minister’s statement said the ICMR would provide a “well characterised” virus strain for vaccine development, the BBIL would develop the final vaccine formulation and, be given a “non-exclusive” licence granted to commercialise the product within two years. It was explicitly mentioned that the “..intellectual property over the product would be jointly owned by the ICMR and the BBIL.” The ICMR would also receive as royalty 5% of net sales to be remitted half-yearly.

The ICMR said that while it had not funded the BBIL for Covaxin development, one of its institutes — the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune — had spent “funds for Covaxin development“.

It also funded phase-3 clinical trials of Covaxin at 25 locations, involving 25,800 participants. All in all, the ICMR spent ₹35 crore for developing Covaxin. As of January 2022 — as per an update by the government to the Rajya Sabha — the ICMR received ₹171 crore as royalty for Covaxin.

Ms. Pawar’s response to Parliament, however, did not elaborate on the sharing of patent rights. The BBIL, which has over the years had several research collaborations with public research bodies such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the ICMR itself, has listed scientists from all institutions as ‘inventors’ in patent applications.

A BBIL spokesperson told The Hindu that the patent filed by Bharat Biotech was only for “process development” and specific to the making of the vaccine. It also covered the use of an adjuvant (an ingredient used in vaccines to elicit a stronger response) that was licensed from the Kansas-based ViroVax and added to Covaxin.

India’s patent laws allow both product and process patents. Product patents grant an inventor a monopoly over, say, a drug. Process patents bar competitors from making a similar drug using the same sequence of steps. “Bharat Biotech is innovator of the process developed after procuring strain from the NIV through an agreed consideration between both the parties. Moreover, the NIV was also responsible for testing for other variants. It is to be noted that while ICMR/NIV owns the animal challenge (clinical trials on animals) studies, Bharat Biotech owns the process development and new adjuvant added to the vaccine.” In the case of the CSIR, product development involved funding from both the CSIR and the BBIL and hence merited co-inventorship during patent applications, the spokesperson’s email suggested. The BBIL did not clarify on who owned the rights to the human clinical trial data — information that is usually not disclosed by pharmaceutical companies.

Close involvement of ICMR

The ICMR’s close involvement in all aspects of Covaxin development is well known, particularly — as former chief Dr. Balram Bhargava has described in his book, Going Viral: The Making of Covaxin, how ICMR scientists isolated the Sars-Cov2 strain from Italian tourists in March 2020, gave it to Bharat Biotech which developed a batch of vaccine candidates by April 30 that were then used to conduct pre-clinical animal studies on rats, hamsters, monkeys and following encouraging results, trials on humans. All of the resulting publications that describe the results of these trials — some published in leading journals such as TheLancet — list both ICMR scientists as well as scientists from the BBIL as co-authors in the study.

An independent expert said collaborating entities usually clearly spell out how IPR and patenting rights from a resulting invention would be shared in a memorandum of understanding (MoU). “There could be multiple kinds of agreements and only a perusal of the MoU can clarify on such matters,” an IPR lawyer, who declined to be identified as he consulted both of these organisations, told The Hindu. The ICMR has previously declined Right to Information requests by activists and media on the terms of this MoU citing “third party confidentiality”.

“This raises some important questions. If intellectual property is jointly owned, then patent applications require that all the inventors be mentioned. In the United States, for instance, not mentioning all inventors can be strong grounds for the rejection of patents,” Dr. Zakir Thomas, who was previously been involved in intellectual property development at the CSIR, told The Hindu. “While intellectual property is a broad term, only one of which is patents, the ICMR should clarify the statement made to Parliament on what it means by co-ownership and whether it collaborated in the development.” The Hindu emailed to Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Director-General, ICMR, but has received no response till going to press. Dr. Bhargava, who has now retired from the ICMR and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, declined comment.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has advised moderation in tea and coffee consumption, the two beloved beverages deeply woven into Indian culture. The medical body recently introduced 17 new dietary guidelines in partnership with the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), aiming to encourage healthier eating habits across India. These guidelines stress the significance of a varied diet and active lifestyle.  

While recognising their cultural importance, the medical experts also warned against excessive intake of tea and coffee due to potential health concerns.

ICMR researchers explained that tea and coffee “contain caffeine, which stimulates the central nervous system and induces physiological dependence”.

The guidelines also shed light on the caffeine content of popular beverages, noting that a 150ml cup of brewed coffee contains 80 – 120 mg of caffeine, instant coffee has 50 – 65mg, and tea contains 30 – 65mg. 

The ICMR advises a daily intake of just 300mg of caffeine.

The medical body also advised avoiding tea or coffee for at least an hour before and after meals because they contain tannins, which can reduce iron absorption in the body. Tannins tie to iron in the stomach, making it harder for the body to absorb iron properly. This may lead to iron deficiency and health problems like anaemia. Excessive coffee consumption can also cause high blood pressure and cardiac irregularities, it said.

Drinking tea without milk, though, has various benefits such as improved blood circulation and a reduced risk of conditions like coronary artery disease and stomach cancer, the guidelines said. 

They also recommended a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and seafood, while limiting oil, sugar, and salt intake. 

New Delhi:

The ICMR’s National Institute of Virology in Pune on Thursday sent its mobile BSL-3 laboratory to Kozhikode in Kerala to test samples for Nipah virus in the district itself after five cases, including two deaths, were reported there.

A team of experts from the Department of Animal Husbandry has also been deployed to assist the state in the surveillance of animals, official sources told PTI. Apparently, samples will be collected from bats to check for the presence of the Nipah virus.

The brain-damaging virus has killed two people and infected three others in Kozhikode district so far. On Wednesday, a 24-year-old health worker became Kerala’s fifth confirmed Nipah case since its recent outbreak.

“The ICMR’s mBSL-3, which is the first biosafety level-3 containment mobile laboratory of South Asia, has been stationed at Kozhikode. It will help in early testing and detection of the infection at the district itself,” an official source said.

So far, the samples were being sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

The mobile laboratory was set up in February last year to investigate newly emerging and reemerging viral infections that are highly infectious and of lethal potential to human beings.

Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar visited the ICMR’s National Institute of Virology in Pune and held a review meeting in view of the Nipah virus cases reported in Kozhikode.

She said the affected gram panchayats in the Kozhikode district have been declared as quarantine zones.

A five-member central team comprising experts from the National Centre for Disease Control, RML Hospital and NIMHANS has been stationed in Kerala to take stock of the situation and assist the state government in the management of the Nipah virus infection.

The Union Health Ministry and the ICMR-NIV is monitoring the situation on a daily basis and all possible arrangements are being made by the Central government to deal with the viral outbreak, Pawar added.

The Kerala government on Thursday said there was no need to be apprehensive about the Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode district but caution needs to be exercised by people as they go about their daily activities.

The Kerala government on Thursday said the monoclonal antibody required for treatment of those infected by the Nipah virus has arrived in the state. State Health Minister Veena George said a meeting was held between the Principal Secretary of the Health Department and the Union Health Ministry earlier in the day and now the monoclonal antibody has arrived. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)