The writer believes that Malaysian squash player Sivasangari Subramaniam’s (pictured) achievements deserve a spot in the country’s history pages given her dedication and commitment to make Malaysia proud. – Facebook pic, July 31, 2024.
FOUR months ago, Malaysian squash player Sivasangari Subramaniam emerged as London Squash Classic champion, the second to do so in nine years after her predecessor Nicol David.
The 25-year-old’s sensational victory left the squash fraternity speechless. Sivasangari was crowned Athlete of the Month by The World Games following her spectacular title-winning run at the London Classic.
She went into the event ranked 16th in the world but was bent on creating history. She did so by defeating World No.1 Nour El Sherbini in the quarterfinal, World No.4 Nele Gilis in the semifinal and World No.2 Hania El Hammamy in the final at Alexandra Palace.
How did Malaysia react to Sivasangari’s stupendous success? Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim offered a congratulatory note. The agong, state rulers, politicians, corporations, and civil society organisations remained indifferent.
This youngster’s achievements deserve a spot in the country’s history pages given her dedication and commitment to make Malaysia proud.
It was just two years ago when Sivasangari suffered life-threatening injuries in an accident in Kuala Lumpur and missed out on the Commonwealth Games. Mobility issues in the neck left her wondering if it was all over.
That was 2022. Sivasangari has since won two gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games as well as the PSA World Tour Bronze-level Hong Kong Football Club Open.
To the unitiated, these details are mundane. To an athlete who was close to facing disability, every victory is miraculous.
So why has Sivasangari not made the cut as far as brands go, i.e. a face to inspire and a force to be reckoned with?
Why has Nestle Malaysia shied away from endorsing Sivasangari as an ambassador for Milo, its most popular product? Has Nestle decided that only one race is worthy of acknowledgement to promote its beverage? Is the drink only for one particular race?
Giving priority to the dominant race smacks of hypocrisy given the overwhelming success achieved by Malaysian athletes of Indian and Chinese ethnicity.
There is no denying most advertisements in Malaysia are tone-deaf towards Indians in particular. Has this to do with the model’s or athletes’ skin colour?
Why have billboards not celebrated Sivasangari’s astounding achievements? Has the Education Ministry appreciated this Cornell University graduate’s “never say die” attitude in bouncing back from a near fatal crash? Clearly not.
So why then the fuss over the Malaysian contingent’s attire for the 2024 Olympic Games inauguration in Paris, which did not reflect the country’s diversity?
The designer opted for a Malay look i.e. gold-hued attire featuring baju kurung with a headscarf for women and baju melayu teluk belanga for the men, as if only something based on Malay traditional clothing would do.
Malaysia’s gold-hued sports attire for the Paris 2024 Olympics is based on Malay traditional clothing. – Social media pic, July 31, 2024.
Perhaps it has all to do with the overkill by the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim-led Madani government in trying to portray Malaysia as all things Malay.
Still, how did Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh neglect Malaysia’s status quo of being a multiracial nation vis-a-vis the Olympic Games attire?
The Olympic Games have no relevance to race, colour, or creed. It is a sporting event. So why must Malaysia constantly harp on driving home the fallacy that Malaysia is Islam and Islam is Malaysia?
That the Malaysian government has brazenly transported its racial agenda to a podium that venerates success regardless of colour is simply unbecoming. – July 31, 2024.
PETALING JAYA: With two days to go, most of the 5,000 companies under Phase 1 of the e-invoicing rollout are raring to go and looking at a smooth takeoff, say stakeholders.
Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia treasurer-general Datuk Koong Lin Loong said these companies, with an annual turnover of RM100mil and above, should not face any major hiccups when transitioning to e-invoicing on Thursday.
“They will be able to cope with the transition as these companies have the resources to do so,” he said when contacted yesterday about worries some businesses have expressed about beginning the e-invoicing process.
Asked if accounting firms acting for these companies are facing pressure in switching to e-invoicing, Koong, who is a practising auditor and licensed tax agent, said that it is unlikely.
“There is some misunderstanding that e-invoicing is like the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which required some companies to change their entire accounting system.
This is not the case with e-invoicing because companies are already generating invoices through email and their existing computing systems. The only difference is that their invoices will now be digitised and linked to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN),” he added.
Koong also said that it is quite normal for businesses to express worries whenever a new system is introduced, like mobile phone and QR code payments, for instance.
“There would have been a lot of complaints prior to the Covid-19 pandemic (in 2020) if businesses had been asked if ewallets could be used to make payments. They were practically non-existent.
“But nowadays such payments are widely accepted even among smaller businesses and hawkers,” he said.
Experts say the pandemic greatly sped up digital payments globally, as, for a few years, people were living mostly online.
When it comes to e-invoicing, the driving force is efficiency in collecting taxes and stopping leakages to increase the government’s tax revenue. To further ensure a smooth transition, Koong said the LHDN has announced some flexibility and relaxation of e-invoicing regulations.
For instance, there will be no prosecution action under Section 120 of the Income Tax Act 1967 for non-compliance with e-invoicing rules, provided the business complies with consolidated e-invoicing requirements.
This means the supplier can gather all statements or bills issued and then issue a consolidated einvoice as proof of the supplier’s income, according to einvoicemalaysia.my.
Koong added that the LHDN is planning to roll out an e-invoicing mobile app and e-POS (electronic point-of-sale) system by the end of this year, free of charge for businesses to download.
Phase 2 of the e-invoicing system will be implemented on Jan 1, 2025, for companies with a turnover of below RM100mil and up to RM25mil, while full implementation under Phase 3 will begin on July 1, 2025, for businesses with an annual turnover of above RM150,000.
Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia secretary-general Ahmad Yazid Othman said most Phase 1 companies are ready, although some may still be facing some difficulties, especially smaller businesses that serve the larger companies under the Aug 1 rollout.
He added that companies are expecting to run into teething problems just as they did when the GST was first implemented in April 2015.
“The LHDN has given its assurance of some flexibility and relaxation of regulations during the initial implementation period, and this is most welcome.
“We hope that companies will not delay implementing e-invoicing with these assurances, which will at the same time motivate other companies to speed up the transition process when their turn comes,” he said.
Ahmad Yazid, who is also a senior fellow with the Malay Economic Action Council, said the experience gained from Phase 1 of the e-invoicing process will be helpful for both the LHDN and businesses to better prepare for the coming phases next year.
With more Chinese-developed innovative drugs entering both US and European markets, China's pharmaceutical sector is showing escalating prowess in innovation and global market penetration, said industry experts.
"This (entering the European market) is a significant milestone. Fruquintinib is the first product approved in Europe completed by our research and development engine," said Su Weiguo, CEO and chief scientific officer of Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company Hutchmed.
Su added that the drug is already improving treatment prospects in the United States and China, and the company is looking forward to extending its impact to European market.
Su's statement came after the company announced last month that its independently developed antitumor drug Fruquintinib received approval from the European Commission for use in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.
Following the drug's US market debut in November, the milestone marks its second entry into a major global market within seven months.
In November, the Chinese-made new drug was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, with the first prescription issued within 48 hours of approval, Hutchmed said. According to data from the company's overseas commercialization partner Takeda, Fruquintinib's sales in the US market exceeded $50 million in the first quarter.
The innovative drug is also in the process of being approved for sale in other global markets, such as Japan, with a focus on enlarging its global footprint and reaching out to more patients worldwide, said Hutchmed in a recent statement.
In a related development, Hangzhou, Zhejiang-based Yifan Pharmaceutical announced in March that its innovative product, Ryzneuta, also received approval for sale in the European market.
Previously approved by the US FDA in November for treating chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, the approval marks this year's first innovative drug approval for a Chinese pharmaceutical company in a foreign market.
Last year was widely recognized as a significant watershed for Chinese innovative drugs that aim to go global, with the number of "license-out" deals surpassing "license-in "ones for the first time.
According to data from online pharmaceutical platform Pharmacube, there were about 70 out-licensing deals in China in 2023, up 32 percent from 2022, with a total transaction value of over $46.5 billion, up 69 percent from the previous year.
Out-licensing in the pharmaceutical industry is a practice where a company grants another foreign organization the rights to use its product, technology or intellectual property. It allows the licensor to enter new markets through the licensee's established presence. In-licensing, on the other hand, allows the licensee to expand its product portfolio and access innovative technologies without having to develop the product or technology in-house.
In the first half of this year, the enthusiasm for "going global "among domestic innovative pharmaceutical companies has remained high. According to a report by Chinese media Yicai, as of June 30, there were approximately 30 out-licensing deals by innovative Chinese drugmakers, with a transaction value of over $10 billion, significantly more than a year earlier.
"The surge in overseas expansion of domestic innovative drugs highlights the enhanced innovation capabilities of China's biopharmaceutical sector and reflects international regulatory bodies' recognition of China's drug innovation," said Yu Meng, deputy director of the information department at the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products.
Yu said commercialization serves as the major reason for Chinese pharmaceutical companies to target foreign markets, as lucrative pricing of innovative drugs abroad presents a vast profit potential and prompts some globally competitive companies to explore overseas markets for higher returns.
In fact, due to the significant market size of innovative drugs, the US and European markets have become prime targets for such drugmakers. The US accounted for over half of global innovative drug sales in 2021, with Europe at 16 percent, while China stood at merely 3 percent, far below that of developed countries, according to a report by consultancy Market Monitor.
In order to strengthen policy support for the growth of the innovative drug sector, on July 5, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a guideline that supports improved price management, medical insurance payments, commercial insurance coverage, allocation and usage, as well as investment and financing in the sector.
Specifically, efforts will also include improving scientific and technological resource allocation, strengthening fundamental research in new drug development and solidifying the R&D foundation for China's innovative drugs, according to the guideline.
Domestic pharma firms' enthusiasm for going global driving business abroad
Technicians run drug experiments at a pharmaceutical company's lab in Haikou, Hainan province, in May. [SU BIKUN/FOR CHINA DAILY]
"I see there are a lot of companies in China that have big potential to develop global-level new drugs. For example, the number of drugs the country is running for clinical trials is massively bigger than other countries in Asia," said Chris Shim, general manager for Asia R&D and quality at US cloud-based pharmaceutical software company Veeva Systems.
With its enormous domestic market size, sufficient talent supply and large number of biotech and biopharma players, China's pharmaceutical industry is endowed with great potential to witness an increasing number of global-level innovative drugmakers, Shim said.
He added that in order to better adapt to local market conditions during their global outreach, Chinese companies are setting up concise strategies based on different market compliance issues and business performances, with a focus on the usage of cutting-edge technologies such as cloud platforms and artificial intelligence.
"Take cooperation ecosystem, for example. If Chinese companies want to manage different partners and patient dynamics abroad, they'll have to manage all the data and solutions across different countries, where lie cultural and regulatory differences and other kinds of complexities," he said, adding that digitalization can facilitate cross-regional communication and operation process to a large extent.
Shim's view is echoed by Yang Bin, clinical operations vice-president at Hutchmed, "The digitalization of overseas data collection, analysis and management ensures the timeliness of our data processing and analysis. For example, clinical data might contain some anomalies, but through a comprehensive digital management system, we can promptly detect and address these issues, ensuring the overall quality of the experiments.
"It can be said that the success of approvals in the US and Europe markets can't be separated from the application of a fully digitalized system."
In addition, Shim mentioned the role of AI in facilitating the going-global process.
"AI is helping people improve their productivity by eliminating routine jobs. For example, the documentation process of clinical trials can involve a lot of human work of writing, uploading, scanning and analyzing, but now all of them can be done by AI by simply taking a picture and AI will take care of the rest. AI is going to be the key differentiator for industry players," he said.
Pfizer VP Blows Whistle: Vaccine Designed To Cause Lucrative Health Problems We Could Monetize
But it gets even worse, according to Dr. Peter Rost.
The former Pfizer Vice President turned whistleblower has got proof
that Pfizer intentionally designed their vaccines to cause a global
explosion in heart disease and turbo cancer, providing themselves with
billions of highly lucrative new patients.
Former Pfizer VP and author of “The Whistleblower, Confessions of a
Healthcare Hitman,” Dr. Peter Rost is an insider expert on big pharma
marketing.
He first made his name as a whistleblower back in 2007 when he
testified before the Senate that Big Pharma company’s were intentionally
ripping off US customers.
About Baxter Dmitry
6190 ArticlesBaxter Dmitry is a writer at The People's Voice. He covers politics,
business and entertainment. Speaking truth to power since he learned to
talk, Baxter has travelled in over 80 countries and won arguments in
every single one. Live without fear
Paris Olympics / Andrew P. Scott-USA TODAY Sports Medal Table < click Live update The 2024 Olympics , being held in Paris, France, ar...
Kuala Lumpur. Gambar Hiasan KUALA LUMPUR: An Associate Researcher at the Institute of China Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Un..
