PJSC Zaporizhkoks, one of the largest producers of coke-chemical products in Ukraine, which is part of the Metinvest group, in January-November this year increased its production by 3.2% compared to the same period last year – up to 779,400 tonnes.
According to the company, 67,600 tonnes of blast furnace coke were produced in November, 68,300 tonnes in October.
“The decrease in coke production in November 2020 is due to the overhaul of coke oven battery No. 6 with a total budget of UAH 90 million,” the company explained.
As reported, Zaporizhkoks in 2019 increased production by 0.3% compared to the previous year – up to 827,500 tonnes.
Zaporizhkoks produces about 10% of coke produced in Ukraine, owns a full technological cycle of processing coke-chemical products. In addition, it produces coke oven gas and pitch coke.
The pharmaceutical market of Ukraine over 2020 will grow by 4-6%, the chairman of the board of directors of Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Group, Dmytro Shymkiv, predicts.
“According to analysts, over 2020 we will see growth in the range of 4-6%. The market is expected to grow by about 6-11% in 2021,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Shymkiv noted that “the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry has a great potential inherent in the previous period: over the past five years, the industry has grown, on average, by 12% annually.”
At the same time, he predicts that Darnitsa will end 2020 with the indicators of last year.
“In both Ukrainian and international pharmaceutical sectors, this can be considered a serious result for an unexpectedly turbulent year,” he said.
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.
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.
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.
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.
