Business news from Ukraine

Business news from Ukraine

Japanese Honda wants to increase presence in Ukraine

The Japanese company Honda wants to increase its presence in the Ukrainian market, said Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Serhiy Korsunsky.

“Today, a meeting with representatives of Honda has been held at the embassy. They are striving to increase their presence on the Ukrainian market. Our advice is to support the liberalization of bilateral trade, expand the dealer network, invest in the production of final products, and attract Ukrainian IT companies to create software for cars and motorcycles,” Korsunsky wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.

He also noted that the embassy advised the company’s representatives to pay attention to the regions of Ukraine, where there is a high production culture in the field of mechanical engineering.

Farmak invests $0,5 mln in startups

The Sector X acceleration hub based on the Unit.City innovation park (Kyiv) has reported for the nine months of work with three acceleration areas – MedTech, Logistics and BeautyTech.

The press service of Sector X said that within the framework of acceleration tracks, the partners of the hub became Farmak pharmaceutical company, the Foxtrot group of companies (Kyiv) and the Ukrainian branch of the L’Oréal Ukraine cosmetics company.

As a result, while working with the accelerator startups, Farmak signed a cooperation agreement with two startups: Bicovery startup will receive $50,000 from the pharmaceutical group and another $30,000 from the angel investors of this company, and ComeBack Mobility startup will receive the first tranche of $100,000 from the group, $30,000 from the angels of Farmak, $40,000 from the French company Undisputed Paris SAS Frédéric Delfosse and $75,000 from Dmytro and Oksana Tomchuk, as well as the team will receive another $150,000 from Farmak after KPI is completed.

Bicovery is an ecosystem with web and mobile applications that helps a person with bipolar disorder, his relatives and doctors receive more complete information about the dynamics of the disease, warnings about potential manic or depressive episodes, measure the effectiveness of medications and procedures, reduce the cost and increase the consistency of treatment, aimed at improving the quality of life of the patient and his loved ones.

Using machine learning techniques and deterministic analysis, Bicovery monitors the mental and physical condition of a person with bipolar disorder in real time.

“Bicovery cuts the cost of treating a person with bipolar disorder by 10-30%, significantly reduces the number of visits to the doctor, reduces the need for outpatient treatment and speeds up the process of selecting effective drugs for a particular patient,” the report says.

ComeBack Mobility startup has developed smart attachments for crutches to control the load in the rehabilitation of diseases and injuries of the lower extremities.

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Ukraine does not yet have resources for creating its own innovative drugs

Ukraine does not yet have resources for creating its own innovative drugs, the development is demonstrated by generic production, Dmytro Shymkiv, the chairman of the board of directors of Darnitsa Group, has said.

“For the production of innovative drugs, we need appropriate research and development and patent protection of intellectual property not only in Ukraine, but also globally. And we also need the ability to raise from $ 1 billion and have at least 8-10 years of time. The availability of such resources in Ukraine is not yet discussed,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

At the same time, he noted that “the generic market is also showing development, new combination drugs are being created and the existing lines are actively expanding.”

In addition, Shymkiv believes that “the Ukrainian pharmaceutical sector will not be able to cover all the needs for medicines,” therefore, there can be no talk of 100% import substitution.

“Refusal to import can be considered in those segments where Ukrainian companies can and are already producing drugs,” he said.

Commenting on the possibility of reviving vaccine production in Ukraine, Shymkiv stressed that “vaccine production is, first of all, issues of public-private partnership.”

“We studied the possibility of launching vaccine production. Everything causes the question: who is the customer. If the state guarantees the purchase, then we will have a Ukrainian plant using the best technologies. And Darnitsa is ready to invest in this. Invest where there are no guarantees of public procurement is too risky,” he said.

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Germany to grant EUR 1 mln to support reforms in Ukraine

On December 7, Germany’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Ambassador Rolf Mafael and Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni signed an agreement on the allocation of funds to Ukraine within the Council of Europe Action Plan, in particular, Germany allocates EUR 1 million, the German Embassy in Kyiv reported.

“As chairman of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Germany supports Ukraine’s efforts towards reforms. To demonstrate our support, we, as last year, made an important financial contribution to the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine,” said German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen.

In 2019, Berlin already contributed EUR 1 million to support the Plan.

Energomashspetsstal from Kramatorsk increases steel production by 9.3%

PJSC Energomashspetsstal (Kramatorsk, Donetsk region), owned by Russia’s Atomenergomash (state corporation Rosatom), in January-November this year increased steel production by 9.3% compared to the same period last year, to 59,000 tonnes.

A source in the industry told Interfax-Ukraine that 4,000 tonnes of steel were produced in November.

As reported, Energomashspetsstal in 2019 reduced steel production by 4.8% compared to 2018, to 59,000 tonnes.

Energomashspetsstal is the largest Ukrainian manufacturer of special cast and forged products of individual and small-scale production for metallurgy, shipbuilding, energy (wind, steam, hydro, nuclear) and general mechanical engineering.

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Supply of electricity from Ukraine to Hungary, Slovakia and Romania decreased by 28.5%

Ukraine in January-November 2020 reduced electricity exports by 23.1% (1.331 billion kWh) compared to the same period in 2019, to 4.425 billion kWh, according to Ukrenergo.

According to the calculations of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the supply of electricity from the Burshtyn TPP energy island to Hungary, Slovakia and Romania decreased by 28.5% (by 1.121 billion kWh), to 2.805 billion kWh.

Electricity supplies to Poland increased by 12% (by 147.9 million kWh), to 1.381 billion kWh.

Electricity supplies to Moldova amounted to 156 million kWh, which is 73.9% (441 million kWh) less than in January-November 2019.

Since the beginning of the year, exports to Belarus amounted to 82.8 million kWh.

Ukrainian electricity was not exported to Russia.

At the same time, over the 11 months, Ukraine also reduced electricity imports by 2% (by 43 million kWh) compared to the same period last year, to 2.156 billion kWh. In particular, 1.356 billion kWh were supplied from Slovakia, 506.9 million kWh from Hungary, 152.3 million kWh from Belarus, 87.9 million kWh from Romania, 53.4 million kWh from the Russian Federation.

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