Jul142017

Drugs from overseas to get on fast track

East Asia

China will continue to intensify international exchanges and cooperation in drug supervision to promote the domestic application of new medicines developed overseas to meet demand, China’s top drug regulator said on Thursday.

The drug authorities will also encourage the domestic pharmaceutical industry to improve its capacity and competitiveness to promote the international visibility of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical products, Wu Zhen, vice-minister of the China Food and Drug Administration, said at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Meeting on Drug Regulatory Collaboration in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

On June 19, the administration announced it joined the International Council on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, which focuses on guidelines for worldwide pharmaceutical development.

“Joining the council means the Chinese drug regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical industry and research and development institutes will gradually adopt internationally accepted standards and guidelines, actively participate in the formulation of international rules and promote quicker domestic application of new drugs developed in other countries,” Wu said.

China is the second-largest market for pharmaceutical products in the world. Annual revenues of the pharmaceutical industry in China exceed 2.5 trillion yuan ($368.6 billion), and annual exports of pharmaceutical products exceed 13.5 billion yuan, Wu said.

“China has great pharmaceutical production capacity, so it can provide support to the health of the people in BRICS nations and other countries,” he said.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The administration has adopted a series of reform measures on the review and approval of new drugs to accelerate approvals and meet the needs of domestic patients in recent years, Wu said.

The authorities will encourage medical institutions to give priority to new drugs that have proved effective and are reasonably priced, and support the inclusion of such new drugs in the list of drugs whose cost can be reimbursed by basic medical insurance programs, according to a draft regulation released by the administration in May.

Certain types of drugs and medical equipment already in use in other countries, such as those for curing rare diseases, can also gain priority approval for sale in the domestic market, the draft said.

As of the end of June, the administration had established routine work relations with drug regulatory authorities in 66 countries, and signed 42 agreements for bilateral cooperation with 28 countries and regions, said Yuan Lin, chief of the administration’s international cooperation department.

Jul142017

Interview with David Koch, Sunrise – Seven Network

Australia

DAVID KOCH:

Prime Minister, welcome.

PRIME MINISTER:

Good morning.

DAVID KOCH:

Are people going to die this winter because of rising energy costs?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, Kochie, I absolutely hope not. I can assure you we are doing everything we can to bring downward pressure on energy prices. My government is taking the unprecedented action of limiting exports of gas from the east coast of Australia to ensure that there is adequate gas supply in the market, because the principal reason for the recent increase in energy prices has been the big increase of the price of gas and that has been driven by a shortage because more of the gas is being exported and there is not a mark now for the domestic market.

DAVID KOCH:

Okay, because the average Australian will be saying we are one of the biggest energy exporters in the world of coal, gas, uranium. So you are saying we got ahead of ourselves and we have actually sold more than we should have-

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes.

DAVID KOCH:

And not keeping enough back here?

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, I always say you have got to take a practical approach to energy. You know there has been too much politics, too much ideology, I’m focussed on economics and engineering. Now what has happened is the previous Labor government, both in Queensland and nationally, federally allowed this big export gas operation to commence from the east coast in Queensland, without paying any attention to the amount of gas that was needed to be retained for the domestic market.

Now, I am cleaning up that mess. I’m taking this unprecedented action – it is very heavy-handed – to restrict gas exports to such an extent as to ensure that we have enough gas for our domestic market.

DAVID KOCH:

Okay, so how will that effect prices? Will this measure drop prices 10 per cent or five per cent?

PRIME MINISTER:

I can’t predict how much it will impact on residential-

DAVID KOCH:

Will it come down?

PRIME MINISTER:

It will certainly put downward pressure on energy prices because what is happening is that the price of gas is setting the price of electricity, and of course gas of course is a big part of our energy sources directly when we use gas for heating and cooking and so forth.

There has been a real failure of policy and I am cleaning that up, I’m dealing with it. I am taking some tough, strong measures, unprecedented measures so Australians know that I am getting onto that problem and dealing with it.

DAVID KOCH:

That’s great news. Craig Kelly though – coming out and saying more people are going to die. The Greens say that’s scaremongering and that you should sack him.

PRIME MINISTER:

Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Clearly people who cannot afford to keep themselves warm, particularly if they are old, during the winter obviously face real challenges. What I would just say is that I recognise, we understand household energy costs, power bills have doubled over the last 10 years for the average household, that is being driven by a number of factors but the most recent rises have been driven by the price of gas.

Now, I am taking immediate action to deal with gas supply right now.

DAVID KOCH:

Good.

PRIME MINISTER:

And longer term, we are putting in case the big infrastructure like Snowy Hydro 2.0 that is going to provide energy security in the future but that will take five or six years to build.

DAVID KOCH:

Sure.

PRIME MINISTER:

That is not going to be ready in the next month. 

DAVID KOCH:

In the meantime cheaper gas hopefully and that will flow through to lower prices.

PRIME MINISTER:

To bringing gas prices down. They are already coming down. They are already coming down but we have got to bring them down to a fair, global price so that we are not – historically, you know, until recently, we were paying more for our gas in Australia than the customers of our gas were paying for it in Japan.

DAVID KOCH:

I know. Ridiculous.

PRIME MINISTER:

That is how bad the market had got and I’m fixing it. I’m dealing with it with tough measures. A lot of people have criticised and said they are too heavy-handed, but I will stop, you know there is nothing that will stand in my way in delivering a fair energy outcome for Australians – whatever it takes. That’s what we need to do.

DAVID KOCH:

Good. Love the tough talk.

You are also today announcing major tech companies will be forced to hand over encrypted messages of terrorists. Are you expecting a fight to get that through because civil libertarians are saying how do we make sure that there is a line in the sand with just terrorists and not the average Australian?

PRIME MINISTER:

We have the right now to get the cooperation from the telephone companies, from the telcos. What we don’t have is the legal right to get that sort of cooperation from the internet companies like Facebook, or WhatsApp or Telegram and so forth, and Google.

So what we’ve got to do is modernise our laws. We cannot allow the internet to be used as a place for terrorists and child molesters and people who peddle child pornography and drug traffickers to hide in the dark. Those dark places online must be illuminated by the law.

DAVID KOCH:

Yep.

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m not talking about giving intelligence agencies backdoors or anything underhand. This is simply saying the rule of law must prevail online as it does off-line.

DAVID KOCH:

Are you getting push back from the tech companies?

PRIME MINISTER:

In America, Kochie, there is a very strong libertarian sort of anti-government sense. It is quite different to other countries, and they don’t – remember that case with the Apple phone, the San Bernardino terrorist, and Apple wouldn’t unlock the phone? Now the FBI managed to get it unlocked otherwise.

But you know, really the message we secured from the G20 and Australia took the lead in this, we had a united, unanimous communique on counter-terrorism. And what we had said is the rule of law must prevail online as well as offline and we expect those big internet companies to ensure that their platforms – wonderful and magnificent, ingenious though they are – cannot be used by people to hide their plots to commit acts of terrorism or commit criminal acts of a kind we have discussed.

DAVID KOCH:

Okay. Well you know all about it – you helped to setup the first internet company here in Australia, OzEmail-

PRIME MINISTER:

Well one of the first big ones, yep, that’s right.

DAVID KOCH:

Yep, okay.

Big moves in the United States to impeach Donald Trump, the American President, has found a supporter in John Howard. Take a look.

HON JOHN HOWARD OM AC – RECORDING:

The style of President Trump is unusual, it’s different, there’s no point in saying otherwise. But that should not blind us to the substance of his Presidency. And he has done a number of things as President that I think are very praiseworthy.

DAVID KOCH:

You have just come back from the G20, spent a bit of time with Donald Trump, rode in the Beast-

PRIME MINISTER:

In the Beast, that’s right! Yes.

DAVID KOCH:

I’ll ask you about that.

PRIME MINISTER:

Yes, Lucy and I and Melania and Donald in the Beast.

DAVID KOCH:

What do you think about him? He seems quite awkward and is this threat of impeachment a reality?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I can’t comment on the US domestic politics but all of my dealings with him have been very frank, very informal, he is a businessman. We had a very good discussion you know in his SCIF – the Secure Communications Information Facility, which is like a large steel broom cupboard that presidents have there.

DAVID KOCH:

What?

PRIME MINISTER:

I’m serious.

DAVID KOCH:

Really?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah.

DAVID KOCH:

Like Maxwell Smart has a cone of silence – he has this room?

PRIME MINISTER: 

Yep. It is like a small room, steel room and we had a meeting with, a very informal meeting with the President, myself, President Macron of France, Theresa May, Mathias Cormann-

DAVID KOCH:

All in the steel room together?

PRIME MINISTER:

Yeah – Gary Cohn – all in this steel room.

We went through a whole range of issues – some trade issues, some issues about the communique. He is a very practical businessman.

DAVID KOCH:

Right.

PRIME MINISTER:

I find him very easy to deal with. He is very frank, very straightforward. I am a guy that has been in business most of my life, so has he. We may not agree all the time, obviously, but nonetheless I find him easy to deal with.

DAVID KOCH:

Okay.

PRIME MINISTER:

You know easy in the sense of being frank and forthright and practical.

DAVID KOCH:

You know where you stand.

PRIME MINISTER:

You know where you stand. Yeah, that’s it.

DAVID KOCH:

Okay. Thanks for joining us, good luck with reducing power prices.

PRIME MINISTER:

That’s the goal, that is the goal.

DAVID KOCH:

We need that. We’ll keep watching.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you.

[ENDS]

Jul142017

Press release: Work gets underway on ‘Halton Curve’ to boost Liverpool City Region, Cheshire and North Wales rail links

HM Government

Work has started on the 1.5 miles of rail track, known as the ‘Halton Curve’, that will unlock leisure and business opportunities between the Liverpool City Region, its airport, Cheshire and North Wales.

Leaders and key officials will today (Friday 14th July) be marking the occasion by going track-side onto the ‘Curve’.

The Halton Curve scheme, delivered by Network Rail, is bringing back into full use the section of the line that links the Chester/Warrington line and the Liverpool/Crewe line at Frodsham Junction.

Vital upgrades to track and signalling on the curve will enable a new hourly service, in both directions, between Liverpool and Chester, serving Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool South Parkway (for Liverpool John Lennon Airport) Runcorn, Frodsham and Helsby.

The services, proposed to start running from December 2018, will generate 250,000 new trips, boosting the economy by £100m.

While the service will be initially one train per hour, it’s expected that demand would strengthen the case for increased frequency, especially with plans for services to be extended into North Wales – something currently being considered as part of the forthcoming Wales and Borders franchise.

As journeys between the Liverpool City Region, West Cheshire and North Wales are currently largely car dependent, it’s expected that the new service would remove the need for 170,000 road journeys helping reduce demand on key routes such as the M56 and A55.

The upgrade forms part of Network Rail’s Great North Rail Project which will see over £1bn invested in the railway across the north, as part of the national Railway Upgrade Plan.

This project, due to cost a maximum £18.75m, is being funded through the UK Government’s Growth Deal and the Liverpool City Region. It is being developed by the Liverpool City Region (including Halton Council), Cheshire West and Cheshire Council, the Welsh Government and a consortium of the six county authorities in North Wales.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

This is a significant milestone on the way to making travel between north-west England and north Wales much easier and I am delighted that the UK Government has been able to help make it happen. When completed, the line will improve links between Liverpool and north Wales, providing benefits for businesses, commuters and tourists, and unlocking the potential for economic growth in North Wales

Said Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region:

I welcome the spade being put in the ground on a project that has long been an ambition for many. People shouldn’t be constrained in their work or leisure opportunities, as there are so many to be had across our City Region, Cheshire and North Wales. These can start to be fully realised through this much needed link.

This isn’t a project in isolation but part of the overarching vision for connectivity within the Liverpool City Region and the wider North to join up north-south HS2 rail infrastructure with west-east Northern Powerhouse Rail to Liverpool.

Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry said:

Liverpool was home to the world’s first passenger railway, and now the city region is reclaiming its status at the forefront of rail connectivity with the Halton Curve.

The government has invested more than £16m in the Halton Curve, as part of our plans to improve transport across the Northern Powerhouse.

Just as the Northern Powerhouse is a long term government priority, this investment will provide lasting benefits with a predicted £100 million boost to the local economy.

Notes to Editors

Halton Curve is part of a £340m railway investment programme by Network Rail and Liverpool City Region from now until 2019. For more information click here

  • Liverpool City Region Growth Deal Funding

The project has been allocated just over £16m of funding from the Growth Deal. In March 2014 the Liverpool City Region LEP secured a total of £232m of Local Growth Fund from the Growth Plan that was submitted to Government. This Plan outlined an ambitious vision of unlocking the region’s potential with the long term goal of achieving economic growth and job creation.

For more information on the Growth Fund, click here

Jul142017

News story: Civil news: financial eligibility assessments for Grenfell Tower victims

HM Government

Financial support provided to victims of Grenfell tower fire to pay for essentials can be disregarded when making financial eligibility assessments.

When making civil eligibility assessments for victims of the Grenfell Tower fire you can disregard any financial support they have received from the Government’s Grenfell Tower Resident’s Discretionary Fund or charities to pay for essentials such as clothes, food, transport and funeral costs following the fire.

We have urgently amended relevant legislation to ensure that Grenfell Tower fire victims are not disadvantaged in applying for legal aid because of these payments.

Details are in the further guidance – see link below.

Jul142017

New academy to train the next generation of radiologists in Wales

Welsh Government

The new National Imaging Academy for Wales, which is being established with £3.4m funding from the Welsh Government, will be based in Pencoed, Bridgend.

The new purpose-designed state-of-the-art facility will allow for an increase in the capacity to train clinical radiologists in Wales. The Academy is expected to be operational by mid-2018.

The new academy will provide a modern, innovative, specialist training environment to enhance the learning experience of trainees in partnership with current training provision at hospital sites throughout South Wales.

It will help deliver the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) curriculum in a dedicated environment through workstation suites, simulation training and a lecture theatre. Consultant radiologists from across South Wales will provide seminars and supervision for trainees on imaging studies, including the interpretation of X-rays, CT and MR scans.

Initially, the academy will focus on training radiologists but will extend to include radiographers, sonographers and other imaging professionals who are critical to ensuring a sustainable imaging workforce for the future.

Its establishment will allow for an increase in the clinical imaging workforce and the number of trained clinical radiologists in Wales, which in turn, will improve services to patients across Wales.

Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething said:

“I’m pleased to approve a £3.4m funding package to establish the new National Imaging Academy for Wales.

“Radiologists and those in the imaging workforce play a crucial role in supporting medical and clinical staff with high quality imaging investigations and timely reports, which allows doctors to deliver the very best care to patients.

“The new academy will play an important role in allowing us to increase in the number of trained radiologists in the Welsh NHS to ensure a sustainable, high quality workforce for the future.”

Dr Phillip Wardle, Consultant Radiologist at Cwm Taf UHB and Clinical Lead for the National Imaging Academy for Wales, said:

“We are delighted that the Welsh Government and Health Boards are supporting the establishment of the National Imaging Academy for Wales. The academy will help address the challenges facing imaging and clinical radiology, providing Wales with a high quality and sustainable radiologist workforce for the future.

“The academy will enable a significant increase in the capacity of radiology training, emulating successful academy models in other parts of the UK.

“We are hugely excited to move to an academy model of training that will help address the imaging workforce situation and achieve NHS Wales’ service aims and ambitions for diagnostics and improved management outcomes for patients.”

It is intended that the academy will continue to develop, to become a hub for innovation and research and to play a role in the education and training of the wider imaging workforce in NHS Wales, such as radiographers and sonographers.