State-owned Ukreximbank (Kiev) has put up for auction the claim for the unfinished Sky Towers complex in the center of Kiev at a starting price of UAH 5.580bn.
The auction will be held according to the Dutch model (with price reduction) on May 11 at OpenMarket (SE “SETAM” of the Ministry of Justice).
An attempt to sell the asset had previously been undertaken by the state bank in November 2021 with a starting price of UAH 7.145 billion.
The bank report emphasizes that this is an offer “for an ambitious investor, ready to put an end to the epic of one of the most famous construction projects in the city”, specifying that the 47-storey complex of 223 th sq.m. is completed only up to 28 floors.
It should include two towers of 47 and 34 floors, office and retail premises, 8-level underground parking lot for 900 cars built on the land plot of 0,74 ha located in Sholudenko Street which was also mortgaged by the bank.
It is noted that additional liquid security is the array of 60 land plots with a total area of more than 80 hectares, located within Zazimskiy rural council of Brovarskiy district of Kyiv region.
Also pledged to the bank were property rights for design-bidding and design-budget documentation for building of a community center, and a 100% share in the authorized capital of a debtor legal person.
The possibility of transferring to this facility of the capital mayor’s office was discussed in early 2018 by the Kiev Investment Agency, the completion was estimated at $370 million. At the start of the project was estimated at $512 million.
As reported, Sky Towers on Pobedy Avenue, 13 could become the first Ukrainian skyscraper higher than 200 m (projected height of 214 m). The construction was carried out up to 2015, but reached 28 floors with a design height of 47, after which it was stopped. According to the director of the development company “Agency of Office Construction” Alexander Demin, preservation of the object was not carried out.
Credit agreement with Ukreksimbank was concluded in 2007. In May 2012, the KDD Group, which has fallen into a difficult financial situation, signed an agreement to sell the American Cimbrorum Holdings LLC for $ 202.4 million project Sky Towers and the residential complex “Zazimye. Of this amount, KDD was to receive $12 mln in cash, while the rest was obligations, including $168.4 mln to Ukreximbank. At the same time, the bank increased the credit line for the completion of Sky Towers to $193 million, and the borrower was the Office Construction Agency.
In 2019, the parties signed a financial restructuring plan, but the developer continued to default. The Economic Court of Kyiv in early 2021 satisfied the claim of Ukreximbank to recover from the Agency of Office Construction 5.95 billion UAH of the debt on the loan to finance the construction of Sky Towers.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the founder of the Office Construction Agency LLC with registered capital of UAH 442 million is the American Taccadero Trading Limited, with David Israel as the ultimate beneficiary.
Ukreximbank was founded in 1992, and the only owner is the state.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of November 1, 2022 Ukreximbank in terms of total assets ranked third (267.423 billion UAH) among the 67 operating in the country.
On Friday, April 14, a large part of Ukraine will remain cloudy, sometimes with rain, according to the Ukrhydrometeocenter.
On the left bank and in Kyiv region at night, light rain is expected, in the eastern regions, in Transcarpathia and the Carpathians in the daytime moderate rains; in the rest of the territory without significant precipitation.
According to the Ukrhydrometeocenter, fog is expected in the western, southwestern and central regions at night and in the morning. The wind is predominantly northeasterly, 5-10 m/s.
The temperature at night will be 3-8°, daytime 10-15°, in the southern and western regions 13-18°, in Transcarpathia up to 22°; in the Carpathians at night from 2° warm to 3° frost, daytime 9-14° heat.
Friday, April 14, in Kiev, it is slightly raining at night, while during the day there are no significant precipitations. The wind is northeastern, 5-10 m/s. The temperature at night is 6-8°C, while during the day it is 11-13°C.
According to the Central Geophysical Observatory. The highest daytime temperature of April 14 in Kiev was 25.4°C in 1972, the lowest night-time temperature was -3.9°C in 1928.
On Saturday, April 15, at night in the eastern part of the country and the Carpathian region, and during the day on the Right Bank, rains are expected, sometimes with thunderstorms, and in some areas with hail; in the rest of the territory, without precipitation.
Winds are mostly south-east, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night is 4-9° of heat, 10-15° during the day, in the south of the country in some places 16-21°; in the east and Sumy regions at night from 4°C to 1°C of frost, while during the day – 5-10° of heat.
In Kiev, Saturday, April 15, at night precipitation is not expected, while rain during the day, sometimes with a thunderstorm. The wind is mainly southeastern, 7-12 m/s. The temperature at night is 6-8° warm, while during the day it is 12-14°.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation (Ministry of Digital Transformation) will launch an updated statistics portal created as part of the global digital transformation of the State Statistics Service (Gosstat) by mid-year instead of the current website, Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development – Digital Transformation Minister Mikhail Fedorov said in Telegram on Wednesday.
“At the heart of the transformation is an IT platform. It collects and processes data in real time, presenting it in the form of interactive dashboards so that scientists, journalists and businessmen can quickly find the necessary information,” Fedorov wrote.
According to the head of the Ministry of Digital, now all data are collected manually from different sources and in different formats. They are long processed in outdated systems and then distributed in the form of statistical files through Gosstat.
“Therefore, we need to fundamentally change this approach,” Fedorov stressed.
He specified that the Ministry plans to present an updated statistics portal in the summer.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has been conducting transformations in the Gosstat since 2021 as part of the Swiss-Ukrainian program EGAP, implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation.
The audit of business processes and IT infrastructure of Gosstat was carried out in cooperation with EPAM IT company. It also participated in developing a strategy of digital transformation, it said.
According to Forbres.UA, the total cost of the project is about 55 million UAH, which were allocated within the program EGAP. The publication also reported that after the implementation of changes, the staff of the State Statistics Service will be reduced by about 30%. In 2022, the staff of the state agency was reduced from 6,000 to 4,600 employees, including by eliminating duplicate functions in the regional offices.
EPAM Systems Inc. was founded in 1993 and develops custom software for various sectors of the economy. The company has offices in 25 countries and provides services to customers in more than 40 countries.
Plantations of grapes in Ukraine in 2022 decreased by 23.3% to 26.6 thousand hectares, some enterprises were plundered, destroyed or mothballed, said the head of the public association “Ukrsadvinprom” Volodymyr Pechko at a press conference in the agency “Interfax Ukraine” on Thursday.
“In 2021 in Ukraine there were about 266 industrial producers of grapes and wine, 125 viticultural enterprises, 29 small producers of grapes and viticultural products. They worked on 34.7 thousand hectares … According to 2022, the area of vineyards decreased to 26.6 thousand hectares,” he said.
Pechko specified that 33 employees were permanently involved in processing of each hectare, each enterprise employed 250 people on average.
According to him the gross yield of grapes last year was 244 thousand tons with the yield capacity of 92 cwt/hectare.
According to the head of Ukrsadvinprom, the situation is also complicated by a significant deterioration of the trade balance of wine products, which occurred before the war. In 2021, Ukraine exported $16.4 million worth of wine products, and imported $215.4 million.
“If you compare the pre-war figures with imports in 2016, when it was $85.3 million in cash equivalent,” Pechko expressed regret.
At the same time, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Markiyan Dmitrasevich noted that the state, having opened the land market, gave an impetus to the development of viticulture as an industry.
“When you become an owner of land, you get the opportunity to invest thousands of hryvnias in vineyards. This is a long-term investment that will work for many years,” he said.
According to him, despite the reorientation of the state budget for military needs, salaries and social payments, it remains possible to get funding for the establishment of vineyards and orchards this year.
“As we can see from the trade balance, Ukraine has a significant imbalance towards imports. The market is huge. I urge all enthusiasts who want to plant vineyards to do so. We should get used to domestic wine. It does not only bring profit to the industry, but also employs a huge number of people, “- said Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy.
According to the moderator of the press conference and the deputy head of the public association “Ukrsadvinprom” Maxim Urakin, in the current realities it is extremely important to apply the status of winemaking to all regions of Ukraine.
“Granting the status of winemaking regions to all regions of Ukraine without exception is especially relevant in connection with the displacement of viticulture in the central and western regions of the country, where dozens of winemakers are already working effectively; the status of winemaking region will allow winemakers to claim assistance, technology, benefits,” – said Urakin.
Full video of the press conference is available here:
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are waiting for the settlement of problems that have arisen after the adoption of the law on the protection of intellectual property rights during martial law in connection with the armed aggression of the Russian Federation at the beginning of the war.
This was reported to Interfax-Ukraine by representatives of pharmaceutical companies producing generic drugs.
According to the director of corporate, legal relations and compliance of pharmaceutical company “Darnitsa” Serguey Bobylev, in practice, the adoption of the law, which sought to prevent the loss of intellectual property rights by their owners during martial law, due to the fact that the first months of war, many rights holders, patent attorneys, lawyers and specialists for various reasons were not able to make in time to comply with the legislation of Ukraine to maintain these rights, “created a number of problems Ukrainian pharma
“The inaccurate wording of the law allowed certain companies to argue that intellectual property rights that expired during martial law continued in force. This has created the basis for litigation, in which the owners of such patents are trying to artificially extend their validity, thus creating a monopoly of certain medicines and therefore preventing the market entry of analogues that are of the same quality and effectiveness, but cost much less,” he said.
Bobylev noted that it takes an average of three years for a generic drug to enter the market, but “with the current wording of the law, it is impossible to invest in the development and entry into the market, because it is impossible to determine the end date of such artificially extended patents.
“As far as I know, about half a dozen of relevant disputes against competitors of patent owners are in Ukrainian courts. These lawsuits have actually stopped the release of several drugs. In addition, the very fact of going to court to protect patents that have finally expired and the uncertainty created by this stops many domestic and foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers from entering the Ukrainian market,” he said.
Bobylev noted that the biggest loser in this situation is the consumer, who is forced to use more expensive medicines without access to alternatives in the form of high-quality and cheaper generics in conditions of war and lower incomes.
“We need immediate clarification of one wording of the law in order for it to implement its real purpose, as reflected by the authors in the explanatory note to the bill, but without creating artificial grounds for the extension of patents. According to the Ukrainian National Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation, the appropriate changes have already been worked out and submitted to the parliament. We are waiting for the registration of the bill and its speedy adoption,” he said.
In turn, the director of government relations “Teva Ukraine” Marina Buchma, said that the extension of the patent during martial law is a non-standard situation: patent law provides protection for an invention for 20 years. Patents for medicines can be additionally extended for up to five years, i.e., the maximum duration of a patent cannot exceed 25 years.
“The situation seems to be exceptional and contrary to the interests of patients. After all, during martial law we need more stable access to drugs than ever before,” she said.
According to Buchma, after the law went into effect, it turned out that patents on some drugs were to expire in 2022 and that would have made it possible for generic drugs to appear on the market, these two drugs are caspofungin and etoricoxib.
“That said, it remains debatable whether extensions apply to patents that have expired the maximum term defined by patent law. Generic drugs were applied for registration in 2021 with the expectation that they could be marketed in 2022. Thus, some generic drugs are still not available to patients and the healthcare system,” she said.
Buchma noted that along with legislative mechanisms to resolve the problem that has arisen, “the pharmaceutical companies whose patents are extended by this law may take a voluntary decision to allow generic drugs to enter the market of Ukraine”.
As the agency was told by the company, at the moment Teva-Ukraine cannot bring to market the drugs caspofungin and etoricoxib due to the unjustified prolongation of patents during the martial law.
For his part, Pharmak’s legal support director Dmytro Taranchuk believes that the extension until the end of martial law of intellectual property rights has “no justification of procedural or procedural expediency, and is therefore discriminatory against market participants in Ukraine, both local and foreign.
“Adoption of the norm in the law on the extension of property rights for the period of martial law has led to an unprecedented monopoly, including in the market of medicines of Ukraine. There are cases when both basic and additional protection of rights to an invention has expired, but patent protection continues to be in force and gives the right to prohibit the use of his invention to the right holder. This is a dangerous precedent, including for the international system of protection of intellectual property rights,” he said.
Taranchuk noted that currently “monopolists retain the possibility of maintaining unreasonably high prices in the absence of competition.
“The norm of the law has a negative impact on the entire generic market of medicines in Ukraine and prevents the timely entry of generics into the market after the completion of patent protection. There are already precedents in Ukraine, when rightholders, using the norm of this law, through judicial institutions prohibit the sale of generic drugs, for example, containing molecules etoricoxib and caspofungin” – he said.
Taranchuk believes that “the authors of the bill were guided by motives to protect the interests of certain entities in the field of IP, rather than motives to protect the rights of entities in the field of IP.”
“The only effective way to solve this problem is to immediately repeal the provision of the law on the extension of property rights to protect fair competition in the markets, including medicines, and to protect the rights of consumers and patients to quality and affordable medicines in fair competition in the markets,” said the lawyer.
The attempt to regulate intellectual property rights issues during the war, undertaken after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, has led to problems in the pharmaceutical market, the inability to introduce to the market and launch production of new drugs.
Such opinions were expressed by lawyers interviewed by Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the consequences for the pharmaceutical market in Ukraine of the law on the protection of individuals’ interests in intellectual property during martial law, imposed in connection with the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine, adopted in March 2022. The document extends the validity of all intellectual property rights without exception until the day following the day of termination or cancellation of martial law.
Partner and Co-Head of the Intellectual Property Practice at Arzinger Law Firm Taras Kisliy noted that the law was adopted at one of the most dramatic stages of military aggression, when many citizens were forced to leave their homes and could not fully work, “including those who work in the field of intellectual property – for example, submit documents for renewal of trademark certificates or patents for inventions”.
“In order to prevent this from leading to mass miss deadlines for filing all sorts of documents with the Patent Office, this law was basically passed. But its wording, unfortunately, was not clear enough and was perceived differently, primarily in relation to the pharmaceutical market, “- he said.
The lawyer explained that the originator pharmaceutical companies (owners of active drug patents – IF) “saw in this law that their patents, which should expire during the war, now will not actually expire and will remain in force as long as the war lasts”. As a result, after the law was passed, there was a discussion among intellectual property professionals. Some of their colleagues (including the authors of the law) believed that the patents had not been extended, while others insisted that the vague wording of the law could be interpreted as carte blanche for the originator pharmaceutical companies, which would hold a monopoly on their drugs throughout the war.
Kislyy specified that this led to dozens of lawsuits, disruption of entry into the market of cheaper generic drugs, state budget losses on more expensive drug purchases, reduced access to treatment for patients and many other negative consequences”.
The lawyer also stressed that in terms of extending the monopoly on pharmaceuticals, the adopted law directly contradicts the European commitments of Ukraine, in particular the provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. At the same time, only international generic pharmaceutical companies that received an open-date monopoly benefited from the law.
“International generic pharmaceutical companies, which release cheaper analogues of drugs on the market after the end of patent protection, suffer greatly in this situation. Now they are deprived of the possibility to plan to enter the market with new drugs at all. All they have to do is to sue and hope that the court will make a legal decision in this situation of direct conflict with the provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. However, trials are ongoing and the Supreme Court has not yet put a final point in this category of cases,” he said.
At the same time, Kislyy noted that the situation with domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers is even worse.
“The current interpretation of the law actually closes them to foreign markets due to the peculiarities of registration procedures, necessary for the sale of medicines,” – said the lawyer.
In turn, a lawyer of the law firm “Legal Alliance” Alexander Tsurkan said that the risks of losing intellectual property rights at the beginning of the war were indeed high and in some cases the law justifiably allowed to retain these rights to trademarks and patents, which expired during the martial law.
“An example can be given where a company owned trademarks and patents on drugs that expired after February 24, 2022. The company was relocated, the employees were outside of Ukraine and at the beginning of the war no one was physically able to file for renewal of IP rights. Thanks to this law all IP rights of the company were preserved, competitors were not able to take advantage of the expiration of trademark certificates and register identical trademarks. The loss of intellectual property rights for business is sometimes equal to the loss of business itself”, he said.
At the same time Tsurkan agrees that this law has a number of drawbacks. In particular, he called the extension of patents beyond their maximum possible term of legal protection one of its problems.
“The term of a patent in Ukraine is 20 years, and at the end of that term, legal protection is usually cancelled, and everyone can use the present invention. However, because of the law, patents that should have lost legal protection since the beginning of martial law continue to operate, and as a consequence some of the patents are already in effect for 21 years instead of the maximum term of 20 years,” he said.
In particular, the case of the drug “Caspofungin-Teva”, whose patent expired during martial law, is currently pending before the Cassation Economic Court. Plaintiff was the patent holder for the active ingredient “caspofungin,” and the patent expired on April 16, 2022, and after that date other pharmaceutical companies could use the substance in medicinal products without infringement.
The defendant, in turn, knowing of the termination of legal protection, applied for registration of a drug using the compound “caspofungin” and intended to begin selling such a drug after the termination of the plaintiff’s patent.
The trial and appellate courts found that the law extends the term of the patent, the defendant is prohibited from using the compound “caspofungin” and from selling the drug “Caspofungin-Teva” protected by such patent.
“Thus, the problematic aspect of the law is to provide the patent owner with an additional term of legal protection beyond the maximum possible, so other players in the market cannot produce an identical product,” Tsurkan explained.
At the same time, the lawyer noted that “Ukrpatent” has repeatedly pointed out in its letters that the continuation of patents, under the law, applies only to patents that could have been extended (and not to those that have been terminated – IF), but the courts did not agree with this position.
As an example, the lawyer cited a court case on the drug Exib, for which the patent was expiring during the war and another pharmaceutical company began using the chemical formula of the invention in its drugs. The court did not agree with the position of “Ukrpatent” and prohibited the use of the patent’s formulation, valid beyond the maximum possible period, in the drug “Exib.
“Thus, the courts now formally apply the law without deep analysis for compliance with international law and the arguments of “Ukrpatent”, which adds additional term of protection to patent owners, turning such patents into evergreen,” – said Tsurkan.
According to him, pharmaceutical companies very carefully monitor the validity of their competitors’ patents and in the last months of the patents they start preparatory actions to bring new drugs to the market.
“Because of this law, after the end of 20 years of patent protection, the companies that expected to bring the product to market cannot do so, because the IP rights of the patent owner formally continue to operate even in cases where they should no longer. In this situation, on the one hand, there is a positive effect for pharmaceutical companies, which are owners of patents, because they have received an additional period of legal protection, but on the other hand pharmaceutical companies, having made pre-sale preparation and waiting for the end of the patent, cannot sell their medicinal product,” he said.
“The law was passed at a difficult time and was intended to protect and equitably preserve intellectual property rights in every possible way. However, the creation of legislative opportunities to provide additional term of legal protection contrary to the provisions of international conventions is a negative effect for many players in the market, “- said the lawyer.
For her part, partner of the law firm Asters Yulia Semenii also believes that the need for this law was due to the war, and its purpose was to prevent the applicants and right holders from losing their rights due to noncompliance with the terms. However, the situation with patents in the pharmaceutical market was a side effect of this document.
To resolve the problem, according to Semenya, could be the position of the Supreme Court in this category of cases, where it will be determined that the law does not extend the patents for medicines or to amend it.
“All bona fide pharmaceutical players always strive for transparent and clear rules of the game. Now the said law has created chaos, the elimination of which is waiting for the whole pharmaceutical market”, – stressed the lawyer.
