Category:

Health

Govt extends I-T compliance deadlines; exempts tax on COVID treatment cost, ex-gratia payments from employers

“In order to ensure that no income tax liability arises on this account, it has been decided to provide income-tax exemption to the amount received by a taxpayer for medical treatment from employer or from any person for treatment of Covid-19 during FY 2019-20 and subsequent years,” it added.

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U.S. approves Roche drug for emergency use against severe COVID-19

The drug can be used to treat patients who are receiving systemic corticosteroids and require supplemental oxygen, non-invasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, the FDA said, adding studies showed Actemra helped reduce the risk of death and speed recovery.
For months already, the medicine has been given to severely ill COVID-19 patients on a compassionate-use basis, generating hundreds of millions in sales for Roche.

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Pfizer halts distribution of anti-smoking drug after finding carcinogen

The drugmaker is recalling a number of lots of anti-smoking drugs. The U.S. drug regulator has in the past reached out to companies whose drugs had N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) over accepted levels.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year found high levels of NDMA in some versions of the popular diabetes drug metformin. NDMA contamination was responsible for the recall of the heartburn drug Zantac sold by Sanofi SA in 2019.

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Third wave of coronavirus unlikely to be as severe as second wave: ICMR Study

Presenting a vaccine ramp-up scenario where 40 percent of the population has received two doses within three months of the second wave peak, and further that the effect of vaccination is (conservatively) to reduce severity of infection by 60 percent, the study said it illustrates how vaccination could substantially reduce the overall burden during the possible third wave.

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