Day: May 19, 2022

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All Border Ports in Guangxi Commenced Normal Operations

NANNING, China, May 19, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/– Statistics from the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region show that during the May Day holiday in 2022, a total of 3,344 vehicles entered and exited through Guangxi border highway ports, including 1,601 and 1,743 vehicles leaving and entering Guangxi respectively. All border ports in Guangxi maximized the capacity of customs clearance under the principle of “open port access to the greatest extent” by minimizing impacts by the pandemic. As of May 5, seven highway ports and one railway port with cargo handling capacity were all open for normalized customs clearance.

Pingxiang Port dispatching team on duty during the May Day holiday to solve problems during port customs clearance timely and efficiently.

On May 5, the ceremony of the departure of the first special train loaded with Chinese medicinal materials imported from Vietnam was held at the Pingxiang railway port in Guangxi. The train was loaded with 12 compartments (each weighed about 15 tons) of suberect spatholobus stem originated from Vietnam. The train will run on a regular basis to help deepen the comprehensive cooperation between China and Vietnam in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. At present, Guangxi has the Nanning drug import port and the border ports of Dongxing, Pingxiang, Longbang and Aidian for medicinal material import, having gradually turned into a main channel for the import of Chinese medicinal materials from the ASEAN countries. The variety and quantity of Chinese herbal medicines from the ASEAN countries entering China through the Guangxi ports have been increasing by leaps and bounds. Since 2020, the total value of goods has been ranking the first for two consecutive years in the country.

Vehicles dispatched by on-site staff with level-II protective suits at Puzhai access to ensure customs clearance in an orderly manner.

Guangxi Youyiguan Port has launched a non-contact verification system through innovation for border inspection to ensure non-contact documents stamping. Two automatic temperature measuring detectors and high-definition cameras are installed at the customs inspection gate to perform non-contact temperature detection and paperwork verification on designated drivers for cross-border cargoes.

The Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (Port Office) will continue to coordinate with relevant departments to do a good job in the prevention and control of COVID-19 at each port and unblocked customs clearance so as to guarantee the stability of the China-ASEAN industrial supply chain.

Source: Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

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Centrient Pharmaceuticals announces its achievement of a significant milestone in the clean production of antibiotics

Being the first company to publicly announce 100% PNEC compliance for its entire oral antibiotics product range

Rijswijk, The Netherlands, May 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

Summary

  • Centrient Pharmaceuticals reached a significant milestone in the clean production of its antibiotics, with the lowest environmental impact and minimizing the potential contribution to antimicrobial resistance
  • The company is the first to publicly announce that Its entire supply chain of oral antibiotics – including its own and supplier manufacturing sites – is fully compliant with the stringent Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC) discharge targets set by the AMR Industry Alliance
  • This achievement demonstrates Centrient Pharmaceuticals’ commitment and leadership in the responsible production of antibiotics.

Centrient Pharmaceuticals announces 100% compliance with the stringent Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC) discharge targets set by the AMR Industry Alliance for clean manufacturing of its full oral antibiotics product range. This standard covers both Centrient’s sites and its suppliers’ sites. This achievement positions the company as a frontrunner in the industry with the delivery of responsibly-produced antibiotics, which minimize the possible contribution to antimicrobial resistance.

The PNEC discharge target is the concentration of an antibiotic in water at which there is unlikely to be a risk of adverse environmental effects or of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) developing. These scientific, risk-based targets were developed by the AMR Industry Alliance and cover around 120 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in antibiotic manufacturing. Each individual antibiotic has a corresponding PNEC value, published in the AMR Industry Alliance table of Recommended PNECs for Risk Assessments (updated periodically).

High concentrations of antibiotic residues in factory wastewater can create hotspots of resistant bacteria which may lead to AMR. While manufacturing is just one of the contributors to the emergence of AMR in the environment, its impact cannot be overlooked. AMR is a major threat to global public health as well as to the healthcare industry. Many standard medical procedures such as organ transplants, chemotherapy, and surgeries such as caesarean sections become much more dangerous without effective antibiotics to prevent and treat infections. Antibiotics are the cornerstone of our modern healthcare system, and complying with PNEC standards enables manufacturers to ensure supply of these critically important medicines does not contribute to the risk of AMR.

The PNEC values are increasingly being recognized as the standard for antibiotic discharge concentrations in water and are expanding beyond Alliance companies and their supply chains. For example, tenders in the UK and Germany (health insurer AOK) include a specific reference to the PNEC discharge targets. Also, companies assessed externally by organizations such as the Access to Medicine Foundation will have public exposure for their performance on PNECs.

As a strong advocate for sustainable manufacturing, Centrient Pharmaceuticals became a founding board member of the AMR Industry Alliance in 2017, working with partners to raise awareness and deliver solutions to the AMR issue. Since then, the company’s own journey to reaching full compliance has included establishing state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facilities at all their sites worldwide and developing tests for measuring antibiotic activity in wastewater streams, leading to a fully clean and PNEC-compliant supply chain.

“We are proud to be the first in our industry to publicly announce PNEC compliance for our oral antibiotics product supply chain.

At Centrient Pharmaceuticals, our commitment to Sustainability is in our DNA – we ensure that the way in which we produce pharmaceuticals has the lowest environmental impact and does not contribute to AMR. We are proud of our PureActives® enzymatic low-carbon technology, ISO 14001 certification of all our sites, and Board positions at the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative and AMR Industry Alliance.

We will continue to work with customers, suppliers, industry and government decision-makers across the value chain to make the supply and buying of antibiotics sustainable to curb AMR.”, says Rex Clements, CEO at Centrient Pharmaceuticals.

Read our whitepaper ‘Manufacturing sustainable antibiotics for the future’ here.

About Centrient Pharmaceuticals

Centrient Pharmaceuticals is the global leader in the production and commercialisation of sustainable antibiotics, next-generation statins, and anti-fungals. We produce and sell intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage forms.

We stand proudly at the centre of modern healthcare, as a maker of essential and life-saving medicines. With our commitment to Quality, Reliability and Sustainability at the heart of everything we do, our over 2,200 employees work continuously to meet our customers’ needs. We work towards a sustainable future by actively participating in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

Founded 150 years ago as the ‘Nederlandsche Gist- en Spiritusfabriek’, our company was known as Gist Brocades and more recently DSM Sinochem Pharmaceuticals. Headquartered in Rijswijk (Netherlands), we have production facilities and sales offices in China, India, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Mexico. Centrient Pharmaceuticals is wholly owned by Bain Capital Private Equity, a leading global private investment firm.

For more information please visit www.centrient.com or contact Centrient Pharmaceuticals Corporate Communications, Alice Beijersbergen, Director Branding & Communications. E-Mail: alice.beijersbergen@centrient.com.
About the AMR Industry Alliance

The AMR Industry Alliance was formed in 2017. With approximately 100 life sciences companies and trade associations, it represents nearly one-third of the volume of sales and the majority of all novel products. Members have committed to report on activities they are undertaking in the areas of research & science, access to antibiotics and appropriate use of these, as well as responsible environmental manufacturing to tackle the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance. If AMR remains unchecked, the annual death toll could climb from 700,000 each year to 10 million by 2050 and the economic impacts could be on par with those of the 2008 financial crisis. The AMR Industry Alliance ensures that signatories collectively deliver on the specific commitments made in the Industry Declaration on AMR and the Roadmap for Progress on Combating AMR and measures progress made in the fight against AMR.
Forward-looking statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to Centrient Pharmaceuticals’ future financial performance and position. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections of Centrient and information currently available to the company. Centrient cautions readers that such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and therefore it should be understood that many factors can cause actual performance and position to differ materially from these statements. Centrient has no obligation to update the statements contained in this press release, unless required by law. The English language version of the press release is governing.

Alice Beijersbergen
Centrient Pharmaceuticals
+31 (6) 823 579 56
alice.beijersbergen@centrient.com
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Advance Local is New Sophi.io Customer

TORONTO, May 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the United States operating 10 leading news and information organizations and reaching 55 million people monthly, has quadrupled their subscription goal using Sophi Content Paywall Engine. Faced with advertising pressures exacerbated by the Coronavirus, Advance Local increased subscription conversions 45% using Sophi.io, an AI-powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail. Their success with Sophi has also earned them a spot as a finalist in the Digiday Media Awards, announced this week.

Neil Katz, Chief Customer Officer at Advance Local, said, “We wanted to see how much farther Sophi could take us, so we tested Sophi Content Paywall on one of our largest sites. The results were transformative. We were hoping for a 10% lift in conversion rate and Sophi delivered four times that result. We’re continuing to roll out Sophi solutions across more of our sites as we speak.”

Advance started using Sophi Content Paywall Engine on one of its largest sites, cleveland.com, to get better insights into the value of their content and fuel their new subscription business. The technology uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to analyze every piece of content and select which articles to put behind a paywall. It picks only those articles where the subscription revenue opportunity outweighs the advertising revenue forgone.

During an experiment where Advance could see how Sophi performed side by side with their existing paywall, Sophi presented roughly the same amount of paywalls and generated a 45% lift in the total conversion rate, while also uncovering pockets of content that editors didn’t anticipate would generate subscriptions.

John Hassell, Senior Vice President and Editorial Director at Advance Local, said, “We wanted to see if Sophi’s content paywall could increase subscriber acquisition by 10% and it blew that goal out of the water. We’re feeling good about the platform and the way it is showing us just how valuable our editorial content is to our audience.”

Advance Local is also a finalist in the Digiday Media Awards, in the category of Best Subscription or Membership Product, for their work using Sophi Content Paywall Engine.

“Advance Local is an incredibly innovative organization that we’ve watched push the boundaries and we’re very excited to be working with them,” said Mike O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of Sophi.io. “We’re seeing great value come from the content paywall they’ve implemented and we’re excited to introduce some other cutting edge technology into this very strong brand.”

About Advance Local

Advance Local (www.advancelocal.com) is one of the largest media groups in the United States. It operates 10 leading news and information organizations and reaches 55 million people monthly across multiple platforms with its high-quality journalism. They are dedicated to unrivaled local journalism that improves the lives of millions of people.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML-powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one-click automated laydown of template-free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.

Contact Us

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing, Sophi.io
The Globe and Mail        
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com
416-585-3355
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Taliban Order Afghan Female TV Presenters to Cover Faces

The ruling Taliban ordered local television channels in Afghanistan Thursday to ensure that female program presenters cover their faces while on screen, increasing curbs on women’s rights despite a global outcry.

Afghan media outlets confirmed that they had received the edict from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, charged with interpreting and enforcing the Taliban’s version of Islamic Shariah law.

The country’s Tolo News television said in a statement that ministry officials had called the new order “a final verdict and not up for discussion.” The media outlet wrote on Twitter the “new order demanded all female presenters working in all TV channels to cover their faces while presenting programs.”

Ministry spokesperson Akif Sadiq confirmed to VOA that it had directed all domestic media outlets in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to bar female staff from broadcasting unless their faces are covered.

Critics slammed the continued Taliban crackdown on women’s rights.

“In addition to violating women’s rights to freedom and expression, this will also block access to information for people with impaired hearing who lip read and … people who rely on visual speech cues to help them understand people on TV,” wrote Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch on Twitter.

Since regaining power in August 2021, the interim male-only Taliban government has subjected women to a series of onerous curbs.

Afghan women have been ordered to wear head-to-toe garments covering their faces when in public. Male guardians of those not complying with the decree could be sentenced to jail for three days or more.

Most women have been told not to return to their workplace or undertake long road trips unless accompanied by a close male relative. Secondary school girls over the age of twelve have not been allowed to resume classes.

The crackdown on women’s rights has outraged Afghan activists and the international community. But the Taliban have defended the measures as in accordance with Afghan culture and Islamic tradition, a position repudiated by some Islamic law scholars who say the gender-specific dress codes are inspired only by rural Afghan norms.

Most Taliban leaders have reportedly been educated at religious seminaries in rural parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Thursday’s edict comes as the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, is visiting the country, where he met with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and other Taliban leaders.

Bennett discussed the issue of human rights, particularly those of women.

Muttaqi’s office said in a post-meeting statement that he asked Bennett to look at the rights situation in the Muslim nation through the lens of local attitudes and customs.

“Minister Muttaqi asked Mr. Bennett to report objectively & not based on statements by media, antagonist circles & self-exiled opposition,” the Taliban foreign ministry wrote on Twitter.

Bennett’s visit coincided with the Taliban’s announcement on Tuesday that they had dissolved the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). The U.N. envoy criticized the move on Thursday.

“The abolition of is a massive setback,” Bennett tweeted. “An independent domestic mechanism to monitor & promote human rights & receive complaints is critical for human rights protection in Afghanistan. Following up with defacto authorities.”

“The AIHRC performed extraordinary work in extremely difficult conditions over many years, shining a spotlight on the human rights of all Afghans, including victims on all sides of the conflict,” said UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet in a statement released Thursday. “The AIHRC has been a powerful voice for human rights and a trusted partner of UN Human Rights, and its loss will be a deeply retrograde step for all Afghans and Afghan civil society.”

The Taliban have also closed several other bodies that worked for the promotion of the freedom of Afghans, including the electoral commission and the ministry for women’s affairs, since taking over Afghanistan in August.

Source: Voice of America

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Govt bans import of non-essential, luxury items: Marriyum

The Government has banned import of non-essential and luxury items to control inflation, stabilize foreign exchange reserves, strengthen economy, and reduce country’s reliance on imports.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb announced this while addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday evening.

She said luxury imported items, including vehicles, mobile phones, home appliances, dry and fresh fruits, crockery, private weapons, decoration items, preserved and frozen food items, sanitary ware, doors and windows, beauty and confectionary items.

The Minister said the government is working on an emergency fiscal plan and economic management and annual impact of these steps will be around six billion dollars. She said it will also help reduce Current Account Deficit. She said the prime objective of these measures are aimed at reducing reliance on imports and introduce export oriented policy to promote local industry in the country. She said a plan is also being prepared to promote local manufacturers so that people will be provided employment opportunities.

The Minister said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is making strenuous efforts to provide relief to the common people. She said those, who are questioning the performance of a four-week government, should be ashamed of this approach. She said the dollar rate was 115 rupees when PML-N left the government, while the last government of PTI took this price to 189 rupees. She said it was former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who successfully completed the IMF programme in 2015 and included Pakistan in global emerging markets. She said the last government gave unfunded subsidy on petroleum products to paralyse Pakistan’s economy.

Marriyum Aurangzeb said the government is also taking measures to improve energy situation in the country.

Answering a question, Marriyum Aurangzeb said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will address the nation in a couple of days.

Replying to a question, she said no can give a deadline for elections, except the government, after consultation with its allies. She said anyone talking of a bloody march should keep it in mind that the law will not spare such elements.

Source: Radio Pakistan

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FM Bilawal raises IIOJK issue with US Congressman

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has drawn attention of US House Armed Services Committee towards Indian illegal actions of August 5, 2019 in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its continued atrocities against the Kashmiri people.

In his virtual meeting with Chairman of the Committee Congressman Adam Smith on Thursday, the Foreign Minister specifically briefed about the steps recently taken by India to redraw the constituencies in IIOJK through an illegal delimitation process in order to change the Muslim majority into minority in the occupied territory.

He said Pakistan would remain proactive in exploring opportunities and overtures for steering South Asia towards peace, security and stability.

The Foreign Minister and the Congressman held detailed discussion on strengthening bilateral defense ties and agreed on the need for sustained engagement in this area.

Bilawal Zardari emphasized the importance of further strengthening business-to-business and commercial ties and allowing the U.S entrepreneurs the opportunity to benefit from the immense potential offered by Pakistan’s unique economic geography.

He invited Congressman Adam Smith to visit Pakistan.

Source: Radio Pakistan

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PM assures all possible cooperation to lawyers in rendering professional duties

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif says the lawyer community is great asset of the country and the government will provide all possible cooperation in rendering their professional duties.

Talking to a delegation of representatives of various Bar Councils in Islamabad on Thursday, he directed the Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar to start working immediately on amendments in the Lawyers Protection Act and Bar Councils Act.

The delegation included President Supreme Court Bar Association Ahsan Bhoon, President Pakistan Bar Council Hafeez-ur-Rehman, President Lahore High Court Bar Association Akbar Dogar, President Punjab Bar Council Jaffar Tayyar, President Islamabad Bar Council Qamar Sabzwari and others. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar and Attorney General Ashtar Osaf were also present in the meeting.

The Prime Minister thanked the senior elected leaders of the lawyers’ community for their confidence in the government.

Congratulating Shehbaz Sharif on assuming Prime Minister’s office, the delegation said that the lawyers’ community has been playing a role in strengthening democratic institutions and will continue its efforts in future.

The delegation appreciated the role of the judiciary in resolving constitutional crisis and hoped that the government will handle the economy as per the expectations of the people.

Source: Radio Pakistan