Pages

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

An exhibition on Audio Visual Aids at CMC Ludhiana

31st August 2022 at 05:21 PM

Event was under the guidance of Dr. Usha Singh

Ludhiana: 31st August 2022: (Kartika Singh//Punjab Screen):: 

An exhibition on Audio Visual Aids was organized on 31st August 2022 by MSc(N) 1st Year (Batch 2021) and BSc(N) 2nd Year (2020 Batch) under the supervision of their subject co-ordinators Prof.(Mrs.) Balqis Victor (Nursing Education) and Mrs. Shehnaz Johnson,

Associate Professor (Communication and Educational Technology) under the guidance of Dr. Usha Singh, Professor and Principal, College of Nursing, CMC and Hospital,Ludhiana.  The exhibition was started at 9:30A.M. with ribbon cutting ceremony, done by Vice

Principals, Prof.(Mrs.) Glory Samuel and Prof.(Mrs.) Malini Singh Bhatti. After ribbon cutting, word of God followed by prayer was done by MSc(N) 1 st Year. Prof.(Mrs.) Glory Samuel, appreciated hard work of students and subject co-ordinators. Prof.(Mrs.) Malini Singh Bhatti motivated the students and congratulated the subject teachers. Prof.(Mrs.) Balqis Victor shared various types of learning methods and skills in various instrumental strategies. Mrs. Shehnaz Johnson appreciated the team work, co-operation and hard work of students. The Nursing Superintendent and other faculty appreciated the skills as students have made maximum Audio Visual Aids by themselves and different ways    the students have displayed various projected & non-projected Audio Visual Aids. 

Sunday, August 28, 2022

CM Bhagwant Mann's Decisive War Against Drugs

 28th August 2022 at 7:37 PM

Achieved major success as Punjab Police recovers 38kg heroin

Heorin was being smuggled from Gujrat-Two Held

Heroin packet was concealed in a toolbox of truck Says DGP Punjab Gaurav Yadav

DGP Gaurav Yadav reiterates commitment of  CM Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab Drugs Free and crime free

Anti-Social elements should leave state or ready to face the music-warns DGP Punjab 

Police teams are conducting raids to nab remaining two drug smugglers-says IGP Ludhiana range SPS Parmar 


Chandigarh//SBS NAGAR: 28th August 2022: (Punjab Screen Desk)::

Amid the ongoing decisive war against the drugs launched on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police on Sunday achieved yet another great success after SBS Nagar Police has recovered 38kg heroin concealed in a toolbox of a truck coming from Gujarat, said Director General of Police (Punjab) Gaurav Yadav here.

The DGP said that the Police have arrested two persons including a truck driver identified as Kulwinder Ram alias Kinda and his accomplice identified as Bittu, both residents of Balachaur, SBS Nagar besides booking two drug smugglers identified as Rajesh Kumar alias Sonu Khatri of Rakkara Dhahan and Som Nath alias Bikko of Karawar. The Police have also impounded the truck bearing registration number PB04V6366, he added.

IGP Ludhiana Range Surinder Pal Singh Parmar accompanied by SSP SBS Nagar Bhagirath Meena, While addressing a press conference in SBS Nagar, the police had received a secret information that a drug smuggler identified as Rajesh Kumar along with his accomplices Som Nath Bikko, Kulwinder Kinda and Bittu is engaged in the business of supplying large quantities of heroin in different areas of Punjab by bringing the drug from other states through truck.

Following this information, the Police have immediately registered an FIR no. 138 dated 27-08-22 under sections 21/25/28-61-85 of the NDPS Act at Police Station City Nawanshahr, he said, adding that a special nakabandi was conducted at Mahalon Bypass in SBS Nagar under the supervision of the Shri Ranjit Singh PPS and SI Surinder Singh.

"During the nakabandi when the police party signalled the truck to stop, the truck driver Kulwinder Kinda tried to run away but the police party managed to catch him and Bittu and recovered 38kg packet of heroin wrapped in a tarpaulin and concealed in a toolbox of the truck," he said.

SSP Bhagirath Meena said that, during preliminary interrogation accused truck driver Kulwinder Kinda disclosed that he had received a call from from Rajesh Kumar via Telegram App, who gave him a pinpoint location in Bhuj in Gujarat to pick heroin and bring it to Punjab. The accused further revealed that when he reached the location, an unknown person came and loaded the drug into his truck.

He said that Kulwinder Kinda also disclosed that earlier on the instruction of Rajesh Kumar, he had brought two chunks including of 10kg and then 20kg heroin from Srinagar Udi in the month of January, besides, 1kg of heroin from Delhi this year.

The SSP said that the Police are conducting raids to nab accused Rajesh Kumar and Som Nath and soon they will be arrested. 

DGP Gaurav Yadav, while reiterating the commitment of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab a drugs-free and crime-free state, said that Punjab Police has adopted zero tolerance policy against drugs menace and crime. Anybody found indulged in any kind of anti-social activities, will be dealt with heavy hand, he warned.

Meanwhile, accused Rajesh Kumar alias Sonu Khatri is a professional criminal and facing over 19 cases of henious crime including murder, hurt, illegal activities, forgery, NDPS Act and Excise Act. While, Kulwinder Kinda was convicted and sentenced for imprisonment of 10 years in an NDPS case registered at Nurmahal Police Station regarding 3.45 Quintal Poppy Husk recovery. 

Friday, August 26, 2022

Urgent need for drugs price regulation //Dr Arun Mitra

 25th August 2022 at 4:45 PM


Dr. Arun Mitra Wrote this writeup on 20th August 2022 

The news that the company producing Paracetamol in the trade name of ‘Dolo’ spent 1000 crore rupees as freebies to the doctors for the promotion of their drug is a matter of concern. It shows the total failure of the government in regulating the pharmaceutical marketing practices. It is well known that Pharma companies spend huge amount of money for promotion of their products. Much of this is spent in organizing medical conferences in the name of continued medical education programmes many a times at lavish scale. This ultimately adds to the cost of drugs and adds to out of pocket expenditure of the patients. The government framed Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices  (UCPMP). A letter of the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, department of pharmaceuticals dated 12 December 2014 had mentioned that this will be voluntary for a period of six months with effect from 1st January 2015 and will be reviewed thereafter.  Obviously the voluntary clause did not yield noticeable results.    

Admitting this fact, Shri H.N. Ananth Kumar, the then Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers,  said in the Rajya Sabha in June 2016 that the voluntary code introduced in 2015 had not yielded desired results and that the government would make it mandatory because the Pharmaceutical companies did not take any tangible steps to implement the code. Clauses 6 and 7 of the code prohibit the Pharma companies from giving freebies to the medical professionals.  But despite several representations from the public health activists and civil society groups the practice has not stopped. The Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) regulation also warns the doctors against such practices to receive financial benefits in any form including for attending education programs. Taking cognizance of the matter even the central board of direct taxes (CBDT) in its Circular No. 5/2012 [F. NO. 225/142/2012-ITA.II], Dated 1-8-2012 had said that any such expenditure by the Pharma company will not be considered for tax deductions.  After ten years the order has been reconfirmed by the Apex court.  

Expressing concern over pharmaceutical companies giving freebies to doctors, which push medicine prices up, the Supreme Court on 22nd February 2022 held that they are not entitled to claim tax exemption on the expenditure incurred in giving incentives to medical practitioners to promote their medical products and it would be considered as part of their income.  

As per the guidelines in the UCPMP the companies have to adopt stipulated procedures laid down by the competent authority for involving doctors in their research projects. These companies then use doctor’s reference including her/his photograph in their promotional literature. The UCPMP prohibits such work.      

Ironically statement by the Minister of Chemicals & fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda  in the Parliament in September 2020 that the Union government has no plans to make the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) mandatory is very disappointing. He said this in reply to a question by K. Muraleedharan, Congress MP from Kerala in the Lok Sabha.   

The u-turn on making UCPMP mandatory raises suspicion of lack of will on the part of the government to keep its commitment and smacks of some unfair deal between the government and the Pharma companies. When a delegation of the Alliance of Doctor for Ethical Healthcare had submitted its opinion to the drugs price regulating body, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in February 2020, they were told that the NPPA has no jurisdiction to check the companies. This has to be done through changes in the law at the ministerial level.        

The high cost of drugs seriously affects the healthcare of our population. As nearly 67% of out of pocket health expenditure in our country is on drugs. High out of pocket expenditure pushes 6.3 crore population below poverty line every year, a fact admitted in the National Health Policy document 2017.  But the government has not taken any tangible steps to control the excess trade margin in the sale of drugs and medical devices.       

A committee was formed to look into High Trade Margins in the Sale of Drugs on 16 September 2015. This committee took serious note of the excess trade margins. They pointed out that in some cases the trade margin is as high as 5000%. This committee submitted its report on 9 December 2015. But it is now almost 7 years that the government has been sleeping over it.  

The pricing of the drugs should be calculated on the basis of the cost involved in its production. The market based pricing, calculating the average of the highest selling drugs is totally a flawed approach.   

Therefore it is high time the government makes the UCPMP mandatory and comes out with an effective control on drug prices.    

Having sensed that private sector in the pharmaceutical sector would be exploitative, our first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru took initiative to produce the drugs in the public sector with the purpose to produce cheap bulk drugs. While inaugurating the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (IDPL) in 1961 he said  “the drug industry must be in the public sector….. I think an industry of the nature of the drug industry should not be in the private sector anyhow. There are far too much exploitation of the public in this industry”. With this vision, IDPL was incorporated in April, 1961 It was established with main objectives of creating self-sufficiency in respect of essential life saving medicines, to free the country from dependence on imports and to provide medicines to the millions at affordable prices and not to make millions from the medicines. IDPL played a pioneering infra-structural role in the growth of Indian Drug Industry base. It played a major role in the strategic National Health Programmes like Family Welfare Programme & Population Control (Mala-D & Mala-N) anti-malarial (Chloroquine) and prevention of dehydration (ORS) by providing quality medicines. During the country’s calamity of outbreak of Plague in 1994, IDPL was the only company which played the sheet anchor role in supplying Tetracycline for the entire Nation. Similarly, company had made uninterrupted supply of Chloroquine to combat Malaria epidemic in different parts of the country. In 2005 to combat national emergency (leptospirosis) arising due to flood in Maharashtra, IDPL had supplied required Doxycycline Capsules within no time. IDPL has always supplied quality medicines and its presence has played a price balancing role in the competitive & business environment. World Health Organisation had made its observations on IDPL as follows:-“IDPL had achieved in 10 years what others have in 50. IDPL products have been examined for quality very carefully by the developed countries and many of them want to buy from here”. 

Similarly the foundation stone of Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd (HAL) was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Central Research Institute (CRI) Kasauli is pioneer in the field of vaccines not only in India but in the world. Founded on 3rd of May 1905  the institute was originally established with a mandate of research work in the field of medical and public health, manufacture of vaccines and antiserum, human resource development and to act as a national referral centre for public health problems.   

But when there was shift in the economic policies and there were changes in the patent rights laws under the WTO after it was founded on 1st January 1995, the whole scenario started changing. Indian companies had to bear the brunt and major impact was on the Public Sector Units (PSUs). The IDPL, HAL and Kasauli were financially constrained. Cheap vaccines produced by these companies now became very expensive and out of reach of common man.    

The Union Cabinet’s recommendation in its cabinet meeting dated 28th December 2016 to close down and sell the pharmaceutical PSUs is a big blow to the concept of the state ensuring affordable, and possibly free-of-cost, medicines for millions.  It is time to raise voice to build public opinion for strengthening the pharmaceutical PSUs if the country really wants affordable medicines for the people.  

As per the NPPA order dated 25th March 2020 there are 856 drugs whose ceiling price has been fixed by the NPPA. Since the drug (Medicine and medical device) is not a luxury there should be ceiling on price of all the drugs without exception. The public sector units should be rejuvenated and strengthened to ensure affordable drug prices.