Libya third African country to ban Indian drugs

Guest Post by BV Mahalalakshmi
khushbo143@hotmail.com

HyderabadLibya has become the third African country which has banned import of Indian drugs, after Nigeria and Uganda. Though there is no official confirmation from the Libyan embassy about the ban, exporters from the country have approached Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) in India as customs officials in Libya have apparently denied them permission to land their products and some consignments have been seized. Sources close to this development told FE that a notification was issued in June.
Incidentally, this comes at a time when the country is already been bracketed by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and has also put the country on “priority watch list” for unauthorised use of bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to manufacture counterfeit products.
Pharmexcil is working with exporters to understand the gravity of the situation as the Africa market stands fourth in terms of global pharmaceutical exports from India which amount to over Rs 600 crore. Total exports from India to Libya accounted for only about Rs 20 crore in 2007-08.
As per rough estimates, there are about 20 companies which are exporting to Libya. Few exporters, who did not wish to be named, said that this move by the Libyan government is adding fuel to the fire to the burning issue in the South African market. The procurement of drugs is mostly in the form of tendering for low-cost generic products in South Africa and none of the Indian companies who participated in the tender process were qualified despite quoting the least.
Libya ranks 122 among the importers of pharmaceutical products from India and 31st in African region. India exported pharmaceutical products worth Rs 20.67 crore in 2007-08 growing at compounded annual growth rate of 172.4% over the five year period 2003-04 to 2007-08. The country mainly imports formulations with bulk drugs imports being negligible. DRL, Ranbaxy, Cipla, Ajanta Pharma, IPCA Labs, etc are some of the big companies exporting APIs and formulations to South Africa.
As per information available from Pharmexcil, there are only two pharmaceutical factories in Libya, both producing medications such as tablets, capsules, syrups, suspensions, ointments, creams and suppositories. One factory has been licensed this year to produce disposable medical supplies. There are more than 20 medical supplies distributors representing pharmaceutical and medical supplies/equipment companies in Libya and 300 international pharmaceutical manufacturers are already registered in Libya. Recently, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria had issued a statement that a large consignment of fake anti-malarial drugs, worth over $2.16 million, was seized. These drugs were imported from China with Made in India labels. According to senior government officials investigations are being made by NAFDAC and the final report is awaited even while the Indian government has taken steps by bringing the issue to the notice of Chinese authorities, through Embassy of India in China, seeking stern action against such unscrupulous elements.
To counter the recent continuous allegations, the commerce ministry has also decided to convene a meeting with the concerned officials in South Africa besides leading a team to South Africa as part of the brand building exercise. Meanwhile Pharmexcil has sent a note to its members who are exporting to Nigeria, to keep a close watch in the genuineness of the “company’s own products” being sold in African markets by self scrutiny of labels and drug testing.

Main causes and prevention of liver damage

1. Sleeping too late
2. Waking up too late are main cause.
3. Not urinating in the morning.
4. Too much eating.
5. Skipping breakfast.
6. Consuming too much medication.
7. Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring , and artificial sweetener.
8. Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil.
9. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
10. Consuming raw (overly done)
11. Foods also add to the burden of liver.
12. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits. Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to 'schedule.'

 

Because :

 

Evening at 9 - 11

 

PM : is the time for eliminating unnecessary/ toxic chemicals (detoxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes).

 

This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music. If during this time a housewife is still in an unrelaxed state such as washing the dishes or monitoring children doing their homework, this will have a negative impact on health.

 

Evening at 11pm - 1 am

 

Is the detoxification process in the liver, and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.

 

Early morning 1 - 3 am

 

Detoxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.

 
Early morning 3 - 5 am

 

Detoxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the detoxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.

 

Morning 5 - 7am

 

Detoxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.

Morning 7 - 9 am

 

Absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time.

 

Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30 am , for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30 am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 - 10 am rather than no meal at all..

 

Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of removing unnecessary chemicals. Aside from that, midnight to 4:00 am is the time when the bone marrow produces blood. Therefore, have a good sleep and don't sleep late.

10 things that damage your brain

No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest.. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

The importance of medical labs accreditation

The importance of Medical Labs Accreditation is increasing every day in this era of technological advancements and competition in the health care service sector. It is in the interest of the patients, the doctors, the society and the government that the medical laboratories operate at high standards of professional and technical competence for the reason that diagnosis and treatment of patients is based on the results and interpretations of laboratory tests.
Accreditation of medical labs in accordance to ISO 15189 standards is the only means to assure credibility of such labs. Through accreditation the lab demonstrate that it produces valid results as per requirements of the standard. The credibility of accredited lab adds benefit both to the patients and the doctors & also contributes immensely towards improvement of overall health care delivery system.
Medical practitioners make decision on the basis of test results produced by labs. Some times these decisions are matters of life. It is the process of accreditation which involves periodic review of the labs through professionals in accordance with the international standard.

Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) is responsible for accreditation of medical labs. PNAC is a member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) & Asian Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC), the relevant international & regional apex bodies. PNAC adopts international standard and guidelines in assessment of such labs, through qualified competent and appropriately trained professionals in their relevant discipline. PNAC has launched accreditation scheme for medical labs, after preparation of creating awareness among the pathologists and lab managers to build capacity of accreditation assessment. PNAC has conducted many seminars and workshops through out the country for creating awareness among the stakeholders. About Forty Pathologists & lab managers have been trained as technical Expert/assessors on the relevant ISO standard. As accreditation is quite new & emerging field, lots of efforts have been made to create awareness among the labs & other stakeholders about importance of accreditation. Training programs have been also conducted to developed pool of experts for running accreditation schemes as per requirements of the International Standard. PNAC already accredited many (Industrial & Engineering) labs & Certification Bodies (CB’s) have been accredited whereas cases of many labs & CB’s are at various stages of assessment. These efforts have supported our industry trade, consumers & other stakeholders to be competitive in the WTO regime.
The accreditation with PNAC establishes the international recognition of Medical Labs and also promotes quality culture; in the health care system. PNAC & College of Pathologists Pakistan (CPP) have also signed a MoU in order to coordinate and promote jointly the accreditation of medical labs. It is believed that accreditation of Medical Labs will further contribute to improve the quality culture in the health sector having a direct impact on the common man.

ATEEQ-UR-REHMAN
attiqmemon@pnac.org.pk
attiqmemon@yahoo.com