Natural gas reserves in Ukrainian underground gas storages (UGS) have reached 11.7 billion cubic meters of gas, and 1.5 million tons of coal are in the warehouses of power plants, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said.
“We are also preparing the heat and power sector for winter. Repairs of cogeneration plants, boiler houses, thermal power plants are going on as planned. 11.7 billion cubic meters of gas has already been pumped into Ukrainian gas reservoirs. This is almost 80% of the demand. We have 1.5 million tons of coal in stock, we plan to reach the figure of 1.8 million tons,” Shmygal said at a meeting of the Ukrainian government on Tuesday.
The head of the government called on the Ministry of Recovery, the Ministry of Energy, Ukrenergo and Naftogaz Ukrainy “to maximum concentration of efforts and mobilization of resources.”
As reported, Ukraine has 12 UGS facilities with a total design capacity of 31 billion cubic meters. The country plans to enter the 2023/24 heating season with 14.7bn cu.m. of reserves.
Ukraine’s state budget on Tuesday received the sixth tranche of EUR1.5 billion as part of the EU’s large-scale macro-financial assistance for 2023, the Finance Ministry said.
The ministry specified that since the beginning of the year Ukraine has already received EUR10.5 billion of macro-financial aid from the EU out of the total funding of EUR18 billion.
“Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the EU has sent EUR17.7 billion of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. These funds have contributed to maintaining macroeconomic stability in the country, as well as help finance priority state budget expenditures in a timely and full manner,” Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said in the release.
The Finance Ministry recalled that the funds are provided on unprecedentedly favorable terms for Ukraine and are used to finance priority state budget expenditures. In particular, the loan repayment period is 35 years, while interest and other debt service payments will be compensated by the EU countries instead of Ukraine if Ukraine meets the conditions under the program.
The next tranches under the large-scale macrofinancial assistance program will be received by the state budget during 2023, subject to Ukraine’s fulfillment of the conditions agreed upon by the parties, the Finance Ministry said.
As reported, as of July 21 this year, the state budget of Ukraine received funding from international partners in the amount of $23.6bn, compared to $32.1bn last year, while the need for this year is about $42bn.
Import changes in % to previous period in 2022-2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
It has long been known that the body’s response to various drugs, and thus the effectiveness of treatment, depends on the metabolic characteristics of each individual. But the study of genetic factors that affect chemical transformations in the body began only in the 20th century.
The paradigm of “treating the patient, not the disease” resulted in the concept of “personalized medicine”. The essence of personalized medicine is the individualization of drug therapy. The response to a drug, the optimal class of drug, its dose and mode of administration are determined, at least in part, by genetic determinants. Pharmacogenetics seeks to identify genes and their variants that determine the adequacy of pharmacotherapy and reduce the risk of side effects.
For a modern doctor, pharmacogenetics is a convenient and affordable tool to increase the effectiveness of evidence-based therapy for many diseases and, at the same time, reduce the likelihood of side effects. For a patient, pharmacogenetics means confidence that the drug prescribed by a doctor will act reliably and predictably, and will show maximum therapeutic effectiveness.
What needs to be done for this? Investigate the genetic information of a particular person regarding the genes that affect drug transport.
CSD LAB has long established itself as a progressive and innovative laboratory that implements modern diagnostic methods that should be useful to doctors for prescribing effective therapy. This spring, we created the Development and Innovation Department, which aims to develop diagnostic capabilities and medical science for their further implementation in the everyday life of the Ukrainian medical community.
From now on, the first pharmacogenetics services have been introduced in the list of CSD LAB laboratory diagnostics.
What pharmacogenetics tools are available in Ukraine today?
Currently, CSD LAB offers two tests that will allow individualizing the treatment of many diseases.
1. CYP2C9 (analysis of polymorphism of alleles *2, *3) and VKORC1 (analysis of G1639A polymorphism), determination of warfarin sensitivity, PCR, blood \ N
https://www.csdlab.ua/analyzes/farmakohenetka/cyp2c19-analiz-polimorfizmu-aleley-2-3-ta-vkorc1-analiz-polimorfizmu-g1639a
The test determines sensitivity to warfarin by detecting CYP2C9*2, CYP2C9*3 and VKORC1 G1639A mutations in human genomic DNA by real-time PCR.
The most common complication of warfarin therapy is bleeding, the risk of which can be reduced by 35%, and taking into account other factors (patient weight, prescription of other medications, etc.) – by 50%.
Warfarin is used for the treatment and prevention of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, for the secondary prevention of myocardial infarction and prevention of thromboembolic complications (stroke or systemic embolism) after myocardial infarction, for the prevention of thromboembolic complications in patients with atrial fibrillation, heart disease or prosthetic heart valves, prevention of dynamic cerebrovascular disorders and stroke, and prevention of postoperative thrombosis.
2. CYP2C19 (analysis of allele polymorphism *2, *3, *17) PCR, blood \ N
https://www.csdlab.ua/analyzes/farmakohenetka/cyp2c19-analiz-polimorfizmu-aleley-2-3-17-plr-krov-n
This genetic test will allow you to determine the variations of the CYP2C19 gene (CYP2C19*2, CYP2C19*3 CYP2C19*17).
CYP2C19 is a clinically important enzyme involved in the biotransformation of a number of antidepressants, anticoagulants, and antimycotic drugs. For example, clopidogrel is a very effective antiplatelet drug whose action is based on irreversible inhibition of the platelet receptor P2RY12. However, in some patients, the therapeutic effect of the drug does not manifest itself, which is why it is necessary to change the drug, losing time in the patient’s treatment.
Why does this happen? The answer is simple: clopidogrel is a prodrug, which is activated by the cytochrome P450 complex, mainly CYP2C19. With a certain gene variant, this does not happen and the effectiveness of the drug is significantly reduced. In this case, you should choose another antiplatelet drug.
How to work with this?
The main goal of pharmacogenetics is to use the patient’s individual genetic information to inform and prescribe the most effective type and dose of drugs. Currently, targeted diagnostics and treatment of a patient can be determined according to the results of a study of his or her genetic profile, which makes pharmacotherapy for patients as effective, safe and affordable as possible.
However, personalized medicine is a relatively new area of medicine in general, and the new approach is to test patients for possible reactions to new drugs and to develop a treatment based on the test results.
In order to help Ukrainian doctors better understand pharmacogenetics, CSD LAB plans to hold a course of lectures on pharmacogenetics this fall.
Enterprises of the group of companies “ATB” according to the results of work in the first half of 2023 paid taxes and fees, including customs payments and the unified social contribution (USV), for a total amount of 12.01 billion UAH, the press service of the company reported to the agency “Interfax-Ukraine”.
According to the press release, this is 22.7% more than in the same period last year, when UAH 9.79 billion of such contributions were made.
It is specified that UAH 8.09 billion was transferred to the state budget of the country in January-June this year (against UAH 6.65 billion in the first half of 2022), UAH 2.8 billion was paid to local budgets, and UAH 1.12 billion was paid to trust funds.
ATB Corporation is an association of large Ukrainian enterprises operating in such business spheres as retail trade, asset management, production and sale of food products, provision of services in the sphere of sports and recreation. More than 70 thousand people work at the enterprises of the corporation.
As of June 1, 2023, the corporation’s retail network has 1,188 stores compared to 1,316 stores in January-2022. According to the results of the last year in the conditions of a full-scale war against Ukraine unleashed by Russia, ATB Corporation paid UAH 20.4 billion of taxes and fees to budgets of different levels – almost UAH 1 billion more than in 2021.
Benchmark crude oil prices are moderately higher on Tuesday morning due to ongoing concerns over fuel shortages in the global market.
The price of September Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange is at $82.95 a barrel by 8:05 a.m. Q2, up 21 cents (0.25%) from the previous session’s close. On Monday, these contracts rose in price by $1.67 (2.2%) – to $82.74 per barrel, ending trading at the maximum mark since April 19.
Quotes of futures for WTI crude oil for September at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by the specified time rose by 24 cents (0.3%) and amounted to $78.98 per barrel. They rose $1.67 (2.2%) to $78.74 a barrel at the end of the previous session, hitting their highest since April 24.
“The unquenchable thirst for summer oil created a snowball effect that led to a multi-week rally,” said Manish Raj, managing director of Velandera Energy Partners. – Supply cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia have led to increased demand for U.S. WTI crude from Asian buyers.”
According to him, the current situation was influenced by several factors, including growing demand in the U.S. during the summer, strong economic recovery in China and positive outlook for demand in India, where supply remains tight.
Record high demand in the near term will lead to a significant shortage of oil in the market and increase prices for the Brent grade to $86 per barrel by the end of the year, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group believe.
Meanwhile, data from oilfield services company Baker Hughes showed that last week the number of active drilling rigs in the U.S. decreased by 7 units to 530.
