Biocon Foundation wins ‘WHO –India Public Health Champion Award 2015’

Biocon's CSR arm, Biocon Foundation has received ‘WHO-India Public Health Champion Award 2015’ for its initiatives in the area of public health. Biocon Foundation has been recognized for its integrated healthcare initiatives through which it is constantly engaged in improving the quality of life of several thousand communities in India.

The ‘Public Health Champion Award 2015’ is a new  initiative by World Health Organization-India. The awards were presented at a national consultation held to commemorate the World Health Day 2015. Rani Desai, head of Biocon Foundation, received the award from Dr Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India, at a function held in New Delhi.



Expressing her delight at receiving the award, Rani Desai, head, Biocon Foundation said, “ The Foundation has been recognized for its innovative healthcare models of preventive and primary health services through which we are engaged in creating a sustainable health ecosystem. Through our primary health clinics we aim to enable access to affordable healthcare to rural and urban marginalized communities.”

Vetter opens new representative office in Singapore

Vetter,  a premier contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), opens a new representative office in Singapore. The announcement was made at a ceremony attended by members of local government agencies and a number of executives of pharmaceutical/biotech companies with a presence in the Asian region, as well as Vetter executives.

The new office will allow Vetter to take better advantage of the rapidly growing Asian healthcare market by increasing the presence of the company in this market. It will be staffed by Chervee Ho, Director Key Account Management Asia Pacific. Prior, the company’s Asian customers were handled by the German-based departments of key account management, project management and customer service. Ho will be responsible for supporting the German departments to better serve the existing customer base due to geographic and time proximity as well as the development of new markets.

US FDA approves Konica Minolta's AeroDR XE wireless digital

Konica Minolta Medical Imaging, a world class provider and market leader in medical diagnostic primary imaging, has received the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its new AeroDR XE wireless digital radiography solution.

Healthcare providers in the demanding ER/Trauma rooms and ICU/CCU units need simple, reliable, and robust primary imaging solutions that deliver the information they need to make important patient care decisions quickly and confidently.

To address the needs of these fast-paced, extreme environments, Konica Minolta offers the simple yet powerful AeroDR XE, the lightest DR panel available today. Designed to provide unparalleled reliability and high-capacity imaging in extreme "on the go" environments the robust and highly durable AeroDR XE is also ideal for teaching hospitals, portable use and at the bedside.

Built to endure the rigors of extreme imaging environments outside the radiology department, the AeroDR XE combines the industry's most robust wireless DR panel with a simple yet powerful software interface.  As a result, users benefit from the best weight-to-load ratio – up to 661 lbs – and the highest bend and liquid resistance on the market. Weighing only 5.7 lbs, the AeroDR XE is the lightest panel on the market and easiest to handle.

Roche with good start in 2014

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and neuroscience. 

Group sales rose 5% in the first quarter, driven by demand for cancer medicines (in particular the HER2 breast cancer franchise, Avastin and MabThera/Rituxan), as well as Actemra/RoActemra for rheumatoid arthritis. Sales of Xeloda, a chemotherapy drug, were lower as the product is now off patent and faces generic competition in the United States and Europe. In the Diagnostics Division, strong sales growth was driven mainly by Professional Diagnostics with demand for immunoassays in clinical laboratories. 

Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostics that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. Founded in 1896, Roche has been making important contributions to global health for more than a century. Twenty-four medicines developed by Roche are included in the World  Model Health OrganisationLists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and chemotherapy. 


In 2013 the Roche Group employed over 85,000 people worldwide, invested 8.7 billion Swiss francs in R&D and posted sales of 46.8 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.