Wednesday Post

On this first Wednesday of Sep 2018, few items which are worth mentioning in today’s blog.

1. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) yesterday issued a statement that they are directing Johnson & Johnson (J&J ) company that they should offer immediate relief of Rs 20 lakhs, to all the patients in India who are affected by their faulty hip implants. This sum of Rs 20 lakhs will be the base compensation to all the patients, this is in compliance with recommendations of panel headed by Dr Arun Agarwal, former Dean of  Maulana Azad medical College. There have been world wide complain of faulty hip implants manufactured and supplied  by        J & J. All the Indian patients who got the implants will be evaluated individually to decide about the nature and extent of medical problems arising from the bad implants, and the final compensation to be decided accordingly. The regulator CDSCO has asked states to set up expert committees to identify patients and determine compensation. The Central expert committee will finally decide the quantum of compensation to be paid by J&J based on state expert committee feed back. There are about 4,700 Indian patients who got faulty implants in India and over 3600 are yet to be traced. The actual process in USA was initiated in year 2010, when J &J recalled its ASR hip implants. The company starts its reimbursement program for the affected patients in 2017. In the USA  J&J agreed to pay totally $ 2.5 billion to 8000 patients in 2013 for faulty implants. In Australia J&J agreed for $ 250 million as compensation, but in India they are delaying to pay the compensation as  till date Indian laws are not clear on this matter and the company is using the loop holes in the law to their advantage. The spoke person of CDSCO said once the recommendations are approved by Central Committee, J &J will have to pay over and above base figure of Rs 20 lakhs, as suggested by the committee.                                                               Now J&J spoke person has made a statement that, till date we have not received any communications from the regulator and we will review the report and look forward to discussing the same with govt. The company had earlier made a statement that a voluntary recall does not mean the product is defective. There is report that 35% of the patients who had this hip implant went for corrective surgeries in 2014. While the govt is yet to take any action against J &J, patients who have suffered disability due to this faulty implants have demanded a CBI investigation and criminal charges against company. So for want of any strong actions from regulator or govt, the company is using all the possible loop holes in the law to avoid paying compensation to the patients. At the same time in the USA which have very stringent drug laws, they agreed to pay $  2.5 billions, and here they are reluctant to shell out even Rs 166 Crs which is equivalent to not even $ 25 million.
2. Is Roger Federer coming to an end of his illustrious tennis career, this question will be in every tennis lover’s mind? On Monday night in New York he lost to below 5o rank player in the US Open , in the 4th round. He lost to 29 years old Australian John Millman, not very famous name in the tennis circle by 3-1(3 sets to 1). Agreed the heat and humidity levels in New York were at peak, but that should not be an excuse to any professional player, because even the opponent is playing the match in same conditions. This was only the 2nd time in his 14 appearances in US Open that he he has lost before quarter finals. Roger is now 37 years old, and naturally his body may not be able tolerate the extreme weather conditions and that is understandable.The problem in the men’s tennis circuit is that in last 10 years there have been 3 other players who were as committed as Roger and who are still playing, after going through various injuries, they are Nadal, Djkovic and Murray, and in last few years no other strong contenders have emerged, and if you see in the last 10 years most of the Grand slams have been won by these 4 players, barring few other players like Wawrinika, Del Petro, Cilic have won  one or two grand slams. So the fact is that in absence of strong younger contenders, Roger is still playing at 37 years, Nadal at 33, Djkovic and Murray at 32. There is no doubt that all of them are great player and Roger is first among equals, and what he has achieved is not easy to emulate or surpass.  Nadal with 18 grand slams ( against 21 of Roger) may win more grand slams as compared to Roger, if he can keep on playing on clay surface as he has won his major grand slams ( 10 nos) on clay court (French Open) and till date he is invincible on the clay surface, in last 12/13 years he is lost only once in French open, whenever he is participated. Even if Nadal wins more grand slams but Roger Federer will always remain the greatest Player of modern era,  and it is a credit to him that at this age also he is playing & winning tournaments and has won even one grand slam this year (Australian Open) . I hope Roger Federar  will recoup from this loss and come back  strongly again in Jan 2019 to defend his Australian Open Title.

Awaiting your feed backs/views/comments on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

5th Sept, 2018.