The number of clinical trials of medicines that are conducted in Ukraine could double by 2023, Ivan Vyshnyvetsky, the head of the Ukrainian Association of Clinical Research, has said. During the first congress of the association held in Kyiv, he noted that doubling the number of clinical trials conducted in Ukraine would be a strategic task for the association. “Undue pressure on researchers involved in clinical trials on the part of controlling and law enforcement agencies has recently increased. Obviously, to ensure a greater transparency of the process, it is necessary to improve the regulatory framework regulating clinical trials and eliminate the existing gaps,” the expert said.
He also stressed that the association intends to conduct a systematic educational work in order to dispel “myths and horror stories” about clinical research that circulate in the Ukrainian society. “Clinical trials that determine the efficacy and safety of drugs is a standard international practice aimed at increasing the availability of modern and innovative treatment and is used in all developed countries,” he said.
He told Interfax-Ukraine that currently about 200 clinical trials are being conducted in Ukraine. At the same time, over the past two years the reduction in the number of clinical studies has stopped.
Horizon Capital Group, which manages $800 million, plans to invest up to $200 million in Ukraine over the next three or five years, Denys Tafintsev, a senior partner and a member of the Horizon Capital investment committee, has said at the Kyiv International Economic Forum. “Ukraine has a relatively stable macroeconomic situation and poorly priced assets: six years ago they were three times more expensive,” he described the current situation. Tafintsev noted that large international investors are unlikely to come to Ukraine on the eve and during the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2019.
“This is a good opportunity for us as a domestic fund,” he said. According to him, among the company’s industry priorities are IT, processing, export sectors, and light industry.
Tafintsev noted that Horizon Capital invests in share capital, avoiding companies with large debts.
He told Interfax-Ukraine that the named volume of investments is planned not only at the expense of the new investment fund Horizon Capital is currently creating, but all the company’s investments.
Leader of the Batkivschyna party Yulia Tymoshenko believes that the draft national budget for 2019 submitted by the authorities is a budget for the destruction of the economy, since it envisages raising tariffs and freezing minimum wages and pensions, which will lead to the total impoverishment of the population and the destruction of the middle class, according to the official website of the party.
“For the first time in the history of Ukraine, wages and pensions are equal to 43% of the subsistence level. This is the budget of total poverty, saving the tariff policy that is crushing for Ukrainian families – they are increasing by 23%. This is a corrupt and destructive budget for the economy,” Tymoshenko told journalists in the parliament.
According to the leader of Batkivschyna, the minimum wages and pensions provided in the estimates in U.S. dollar terms are 1.7 times less than they were at the beginning of 2014, health care financing has been reduced by 1.6 times.
According to Tymoshenko, it is unacceptable that the budget for 2019 is based on the old tax base, with twice the higher rates than in developed countries, which significantly slows down the development of the economy.
The politician noted that if the government draft budget is adopted, “the economy’s falling, emigration of people to other countries, the destruction of the middle class will continue.”
“This budget, in essence, is a verdict to the country. I hope that the deputies will not risk voting for it,” Tymoshenko stated.
BUDGET, PEOPLE, THREATENS, UKRAINIAN ECONOMY, WELL-BEING, YULIA TYMOSHENKO
HarvEast agricultural holding has launched a seed treatment line with a production capacity of 8 tonnes per hour in Donetsk region, the company’s press service has reported.
According to the report, investment in the launch of the line amounted to about $2 million. The universal seed line of the Danish company Cimbria was installed by the agricultural holding in the territory of the former oil press plant located in Nikolske district of Donetsk region.
“Together with the line for the processing of seeds, the quality control laboratory for the manufactured products began to work. By the end of 2018, the plant will be reconstructed, a silo with a storage capacity of 9,000 cubic meters will also be put into operation in its territory,” the agricultural holding said.
After increasing the production capacity in 2019, the plant will treat the seeds of wheat, sunflower, legumes and maize for both the needs of HarvEast and external customers.
The company said that in 2017, HarvEast began to develop the seed direction as a separate type of business with a sunflower seeds hybridization project for MAS Seeds. In 2018, the agroholding expanded cooperation with the French partner to three projects, and also started growing seeds for Euralis Semences, DuPont Pioneer and Alta Seeds. HarvEast also introduced irrigation systems on 1,100 hectares of land in Donetsk region.
The Kyiv City Council at a plenary session on Thursday has amended the city’s budget for 2018, expanding the charter capital of municipal enterprise Kyivteploenergo by UAH 196 million.
The press service of the Kyiv City Council reported that the revenue target of the general fund of Kyiv’s budget was met by 108.4% in January-September 2018, which gave grounds for reviewing the revenues and expenditure of the document.
It was decided to assign UAH 196 million to expand the charter capital of Kyivteploenergo and UAH 100 million for education (payment of wages to teachers).
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has permitted Sergiy Tigipko to acquire over 50% of shares in private joint-stock company Kuznya on Rybalsky plant (Kyiv) indirectly via Avins Limited (Cyprus).
“Citizen of Ukraine was permitted [indirectly via Avins Limited (Cyprus)] to acquire shares in PrJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky plant (Kyiv, Ukraine), which will grant over 50% of the votes in the management body of the company,” the committee said in an official report on Friday.
As reported, the committee received Tigipko’s application on September 26, 2018.
Earlier the TAS Group belonged to Tigipko said that the group has reached a preliminary agreement on acquisition of PrJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky Plant.
“After receiving a permit from the regulator, the sides plan to continue finalizing the deal,” the group said.
The cost of the deal and the term for finalizing it are not disclosed.
Kuznya on Rybalsky is a famous shipyard on the Ukrainian market. The key shareholder in the plant privatized in 1995 is the non-diversified corporate investment fund Prime Assets Capital (earlier Petro Poroshenko fund, Kyiv).
