Gender & Health

Sun Pharma, India's biggest drug manufacturer, has been sent a warning letter about violations of manufacturing regulations at its Halol plant in Gujarat by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Indian companies supply as much as 40 percent of the drugs sold in the U.S. Read More

Some 500 Angolan fisherfolk have demanded compensation from Chevron after an oil spill polluted the Mandarin and Mpuela shoreline in Cabinda last month, close to the California company's drilling operations. Under government orders, all fishing activity was banned for almost two weeks. Read More

Three major U.S. medical associations - the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Cardiology - have bowed to pressure from activist doctors to stop accepting corporate donations from Coca-Cola. The campaigners say Coke exerted undue influence over the medical groups. Read More

A music video asking Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, to clean up mercury waste from their former Indian factory notched up two million views in less than a week, prompting a reply from the company CEO. 'Kodaikanal Won't,' the video by Sonia Ashraf, parodied Nicki Minaj's song 'Anaconda.' Read More

Hundreds of drugs tested in India have been banned from sale in the European Union after French inspectors found flaws in clinical trials conducted by GVK Biosciences, a company based in Hyderabad. The Indian government has threatened to take legal action against the ban under international trade rules. Read More

Nestle says that it will destroy 400 million packets of Maggi brand instant noodles in India worth some Rs 320 crores ($50.5 million). The company made the announcement after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India found "hazardous" levels of lead in company products and ordered legal action. Read More

Over one million people in the Canadian province of Quebec will receive a total of C$15.6 billion ($12.5 billion) in damages for smoking related diseases from three of the biggest tobacco companies in the country. The settlement is the result of a 17 year long court battle. Read More

DaVita, a company that provides health care to patients with kidney problems, has agreed to pay $495 million to settle whistleblower complaints that the company conspired to overcharge the U.S. government. This is in addition to the $400 million that the company had to pay out last year. Read More

Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, has agreed to compensate 14 individuals for violent acts committed near the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea. Eleven of the cases involved sexual violence such as rape. Some 120 others had previously accepted cash settlements of about $10,000. Read More

A Kazakh oil consortium has been accused of "mass poisoning" after 25 school children and four teachers passed out almost simultaneously at a school in Berezovka village in northwest Kazakhstan. The incident is the latest in a decade of allegations of pollution caused by the neighboring Karachaganak oil field. Read More