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Imphal TimesRegd.No. MANENG /2013/51092 Volume 7, Issue 191, Tuesday, February 11, 2020 Maliyapham Palcha kumsing 3418 Rs. 2/-

By Raju VernekarMumbai, Feb 11

As a sequel to the NovelCoronavirus out break in China,the supply of actualpharmaceutical ingredients(APIs) has been severelyaffected and the DrugController of India (DCI) hasdirected the Food and DrugAdministrations (FDAs)across the country to collectinformation of available stocksof 58 APIs, from drugmanufacturers.API is the part of any drug thatproduces the intended effects.Some drugs, such ascombination therapies, havemultiple active ingredients totreat different symptoms or actin different ways. Productionof APIs has traditionally been

Coronavirus out break, supply of vital drug ingredients hitdone by the pharmaceuticalcompanies, in their homecountries. But in recent yearsmany corporations have optedto send manufacturingoverseas to cut costs.Nearly 75-85% ingredients areimported from China. Some 354drugs and drug ingredientswere imported from China in2017 and the situation wassame in the year that followed.But due to the coronavirus,import of APIs has come to astandstill. The Hubei provinceis considered as a hub of APImanufacture. Since January,Hubei remains in a state oflockdown to limit the spread ofthe virus and imports of APIsfrom China have stopped. Priorto that, the supply was slowbecause of the Chinese NewYear and holiday season

during December.A top official from MaharashtraFDA confirmed that theinstructions to take stock ofAPIs have been received fromDCI and the information isbeing collected f rom themanufacturers. Thegovernment is also collectingdata on overseasmanufacturers of APIs, thequantity imported since 2018,as well as the productioncapacities of domesticmanufactures in case a scale-up is needed.Some of the APIs include:Cyclosporine, Clozapine,Clindamycin hydrochloride,C y c l o p h o s p h a m i d e ,Ciprofloxacin, Methotrexate,Carbamazepine, Lithiumcarbonate, Phenytoin,Phenyto in sodium,

Lamivudine, Penicillamine,Thiabendazole, Efavirenz,Nevirapine, Rifampicin,Lopinavir, Ritonavir,Zidovudin , Aciclovir andAmpicillin. Lopinavir and Ritonavir, areused for HIV/AIDS treatmentand have been approved bythe Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) for treatmentof coronavirus infection.Amoxicillin, Cephalexine areused as common antibiotics totreat a bacterial infection,Rifampicin is used intuberculosis regimen.Paracetamol, Doxycycline,Gentamycin, Prednisolone,Meropenam are commonlyused APIs.China remains a major supplierof not just antibiotics, but alsoVitamin B12, B1, B6, and E to

India. The manufacturers inIndia had faced a spurt inprices earlier and imports werestopped from China, for sometime. For finished products wehave a month’s stock right now.But if the situation continues,we need to do something,Indian Drug Manufacturers’Association (IDMA) SecretaryGeneral Daara B Patel, said.Coronavirus and its impact inIndia will be a worrisome factor.If domestic production, thataccounts for 30 per cent ofAPIs, is unable to cope up, keymedicine supply for malaria,tuberculosis, HIV, cancer andeven diabetes may gethampered and even Nationalhealth schemes can getaffected.The India pharma industry’sreliance on China for its bulk

drugs and APIs and the riskthis poses to India’s healthsecurity has been a subject ofpolicy discussions for manyyears now, but with little follow-up action. The current situationis a “call for action” for Indiato shore up its strength whenit comes to drug intermediates,since India imports over 60 percent of its requirement fromChina, Secretary-General of theIndian Pharmaceutical AllianceSecretary-General SudarshanJain said.Industry executives fear that ifthe situation does not improvesoon, the cost of materials usedto make medicines in India willrise regardless of therapeuticcategory. In the case ofproducts that are under pricecontrol, the pr ices thatcustomers pay should not be

impacted. On earlier occasions,industry bodies had sought anincrease in the maximum retailprices of these medicines,arguing that they were unableto recover the cost ofmanufacturing them.In the meanwhile, ICMR statedthat all the 654 samples fromquarantine centres testedproved negative and theywill be retested on the day14 of the quarantine period.Out of 918 samples referredfrom suspected cases,, threeco nfi rmed labor ato rypo sitive for nCo V. Inaddition to ICMR, NIV, Pune,13 Vir us Res earch andDiagn ost ic Labo rator iesac ros s the cou ntr y andNational Centre for DiseaseCo ntr o l, New Delh i a reperforming testing.

IT NewsImphal, Feb 11

Condemning the illogical,undemocratic and untenabledecision of the then OkramIbobi Singh Government thatwas arrived at on February 10four years ago, the public ofKhousabung Region hold aMass Candle Light Vigil lastnight at Khousabung Bazar inChurachandpur District ofManipur. The publicdemonstration , besidesothers, is a continuation of

IT NewsImphal, Feb. 10

Prof. Pulok Kumar Mukherjeehas taken charge as Director ofthe Institute of Bioresourcesand Sustainable Development(IBSD), an autonomousinstitute of Depar tment ofBiotechnology, Ministry ofScience and Technology,Government of India. Earlier hewas working as Professoro f P h a r m a c e u t i c a lTechnology and Director ofthe School of Natural ProductStudies, Jadavpur University,Kolkata. Prof. Pulok Kumar Mukherjeeis working on trad itionalmedicine insp ired drugdiscovery and developmentfrom Indian medicinal plants

Prof. Pulok Kumar Mukherjee takes charge as Director IBSDwith major emphasis on theirvalidation, formulation andstandardization, metabolomicprofiling, safety documentationand related aspects. He hasmade significant contributionson translational research inbiomedical sciences for drugdiscovery and developmentthrough evidence-basedvalidation and documentationof traditional medicine for theirquality, safety and efficacy. Hehas made several innovativeand outstanding contributionsin academics and research inthe area of natural productstudies, related to thebioprospecting of medicinalplants leading to thedevelopment of safe andefficacious products. He hascontributed a lot on evaluation

and validation of drugs andpharmaceuticals from medicinalplants including their chemo-profiling, quality evaluation,safety documentation,ethnopharmacology andevidence-based validation ofherbs used in traditional medicine.His multidisciplinary concertedefforts for drug development

from Indian Medicinal Plants(IMPs) and their validationwith special emphasis onquality control, safety-relatedquality issues, synergy, value-added formulationdevelopment, metabolomics,marker profiling and relatedaspects have been appreciatedby several industr ies andproducts have beendeveloped, technology hasbeen transferred throughU n i v e r s i t y - I n d u s t r ycollaborations. His works onsystematic data mining forvalidation of Indian medicinalplants are usefu l bio-prospecting tools fordeveloping safe and effectiveproducts with scientif icevidence. He is a fellow of theNational Academy of Science,

India (FNASc) and the RoyalSociety of Chemistry, UK(FRSC) and The West BengalAcademy of Science andTechnology (WAST). ProfMukherjee is the President ofIn ternational Society forE t h n o p h a r m a c o l o g y ,Switzerland and Secretary ofthe Society forEthnopharmacology, India(SFE-India), Kolkata, India. Institute of Bioresources andSustainable Development(IBSD) was established as anautonomous institute by theDepartment of Biotechnology,Govt. of India in April, 2001 atImphal, Manipur. Presently,IBSD also has its centres atGangtok , Sikkim; Aizawl,Mizoram and Shillong,Meghalaya.

the long fight for justice anddemands for immediatecreation of Khousabung Sub- Division.Khousabung is located in themost centre poin t of themighty Thangting /Thangjing Hill Range and isthe Headquaters of 01 -Khousabung District CouncilConstituency since 1972.It may be pointed out that thethen Okram Ibobi SinghGovernment took an unilateraland div isive CabinetDecision renaming theerstwhile Thangting Sub -Division to Kangvai onFebruary 10, 2016, smashingthe popular sentiments andaspirations on the ground,and side stepping the publicdemand for creation ofKhousabung Sub - Division.It may be recalled that morethan 117 villages out of a totalof 125 villages and localities

Khousabung Continues fight for justice;demands immediate creation of

Khousabung Sub - Division

have supported and endorsedKhousabung as Sub -Divisional Headquarters.“Khousabung has been apolitical martyr in the handsof the Congress for electingBJP candidate to the DistrictCouncil”, said Ng Sang, asocial activist. In the 2015ADC election, SeilenmangKhongsai was elected from 01- Khousabung, the lone BJPcandidate to win election inChurachanpur ADC.Drawing the attention of theBJP Government, the publicresolution calls for immediatecreation of Khousabung Sub- Division to accelerate fastpace of progress anddevelopment in the region.The Mass Candle Light Vigilwas par ticipated bySeilenmang Khongsai,Member, ADC / Ccpur, villagechiefs, public and womenfolks of Khousabung Region.

IT NewsThoubal,Feb.11

Along with paying rich floraltributes, BJP KhangabokMandal today observed the52th Death Anniversary ofPandit Deen DayalUpadhyaya and 25th DeathAnniversary of SaheedMadhumangol at KhangabokMayai Laikai Community Hallin Thoubal District.Led by the BJP ThoubalDistrict President YumnamKumarji and Former Vice-President of BJP Manipur

Pradesh Thokchom Jadumani,Mandak members, MahilaMembers of the party andLocal Workers Paid floraltributes and respect to thephoto of the late leader.Former Vice-President of BJPManipur PradeshTh.Jadumani br iefed thegathering on the life story andphilosophy of Pandit DeenDayal Upadhyay who wasborn in a noble family andbecame a pioneer in theformation of Bharatiya JanaSangh (BJS) in India, h isfocused on social service by

providing lifeskills to theyouth and caring for the lastperson in the queue.Vice-President of BJPKhangabok MandalT.Chourajit, Mandal Officebearers, Executive membersand invitees and members ofvarious Morchas and Cells ofthe Party were also present.Six (6) BJP Mandals ofThoubal Distr ict todayobserved the 52th DeathAnniversary of Pandit DeenDayal Upadhyaya and 25thDeath Anniversary of SaheedMadhumangol.

Death Anniversary of Pandit DeenDayal Upadhyaya observed

IT NewsImphal, Feb 11

Whether Civil o ff ices oreducational institutions run bythe central government havebeen entrusted power not tofollow holiday list prepared bythe State government has notbeen defined at any of theservice book or guidelines, butthe Manipur University whichis now a central universityunder the Ministry of Human

For Manipur University Patriot’s Day is a restrictedHoliday, even as state Govt. declares it as General holiday

Resource and Developmenthas converted state holiday torestricted holiday.Patriot’s Day, observed everyyear by the government ofManipur as a mark of tributeto Martyrs of the erstwhilekingdom by declaring as stateholiday besides organizingmain state function at SahidMinar and by paying tributeat Hicham Yaicha Pat as wellas at Kangla where BirTikendrajit and Thangal

General were cremated.Interestingly annual calendarpublished for this year by theManipur University printedthe 13th of August i.e, thePatriot’s Day as RestrictedHoliday.

If the printed date – 13thAugust that is the Patriots’Day is an erroneous mistakethen the University authorityshould clarify at the earliestpossible time. Had not theUniversity authority make any

Nirbhaya: SCnot entertainingCentre’’s plea

seeking stay onDelhi HC order

AgecyNew Delhi, Feb 11

The Supreme Court onTuesday declined toentertain Centre’s pleaseeking stay on a Delhi HighCourt order forsimultaneous execution ofall four convicts in theNirbhaya gang rape andmurder case. SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehtacontended that the momentauthorities move for deathwarrant, the one accused,who is yet to exhaust mercypetition to the President andcurative petition, wouldmove the mercy plea to stallexecution of all convicts ondeath row. A bench headedby Justice R. Banumathiand comprising JusticesAshok Bhushan and A.S.Bopanna insisted that theCentre should move the trialcourt for issuance of freshdate for death warrants.“Ifnothing is pending thenyou (Centre) can ask forfresh warrants,” saidJustice Bhushan.Mehtainformed the court thatexcept for Pawan, theremaining three accusedhave exhausted all legalremedies available at theirdisposal.

clarification regarding thematter then it will become anopen secret that The ManipurUniversity authority has norespect for the Government ofManipur.I t may be noted that the

Manipur Calendar 2020published by the Directorateof Information & PublicRelations, Government ofManipur declared the Patriots’Day as state holiday at serialnumber 16 of the Holiday list.

13th Aug.Patriot’s Day restricted holiday for MU