Biopharma pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) has accumulated about 150 liters of plasma from 118 donors who have had coronavirus (COVID-19) for the production of the drug for COVID-19, and the same amount is needed to create an experimental series.
The company informed Interfax-Ukraine that it is necessary to collect 300 liters to create the first experimental series of drugs.
“Not everyone who is diagnosed has developed antibodies, but they are the main weapon against the disease. However, there are cases of asymptomatic course of the disease. That is why everyone who donate plasma in our centers is tested for antibodies to COVID-19,” said the president of the company, Kostiantyn Yefymenko.
He called on Ukrainians, representatives of government, business and public activists to help attract donors who have overcome the coronavirus.
He said that if antibodies are detected, the collected plasma is used to create a drug for coronavirus, if there are no antibodies, then other drugs are made from donated blood.
Biopharma also reports that clinical trials of use of Bioven in the symptomatic treatment of coronavirus are completed. This drug is also produced from donated plasma. In particular, according to the company, during the Bioven research, Ukrainian and international experts noted that it reduces the severity of the cytokine storm and helps stabilize the condition of seriously ill patients.
“The preliminary results of the studies are extremely encouraging: everyone who took Bioven, observe the stabilization of the general condition up to two days after taking the drug, followed by a decrease in manifestations of respiratory failure,” the company reported.
As reported, clinical effectiveness trials of domestic drugs AMIZON MAX (produced by Farmak), Amiksin IC (Interchem), Bioven (Biopharma) and Corvitin (BHFZ) are underway in Ukraine.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) plans to invest $7 million in construction of new office and laboratory complex.
The company told Interfax-Ukraine that the complex will be built on the territory of its plant in Bila Tserkva (Kyiv region).
“Some of the facilities in the territory of the scientific and production complex [in Bila Tserkva] were sold to STADA Ukraine. We decided to build a new building. It will be a separate building from the building of the fractionator plant,” the company said.
In addition, the company said that Biopharma sent $500,000 to buy laboratory equipment for the diagnosis of COVID-19, test systems, artificial lung ventilators, and blood gas analyzers.
Biopharma is a Ukrainian biotechnology company, the only plant in Eastern Europe that has modern technology, has been manufacturing and developing drugs from donated plasma for almost 50 years.
The biopharmaceutical company Biopharma begins to conduct EIA (enzyme immunoassay) tests for availability of COVID-19 antibody assay for all plasma donors, EIA testing will identify those who have the disease in a latent form.
“Biopharma purchased 12,000 EIA tests manufactured by Roche and on May 18 we will begin testing donors for antibodies on our hardware base,” Kostiantyn Yefymenko, the co-owner of the company, said on his Facebook page.
He recalled that Biopharma has begun collecting plasma from donors who have undergone COVID-19.
“The first liters of such plasma have already been prepared, and our team is doing a very difficult job. We understood that it would not be easy. Very difficult,” he wrote.
Yefymenko noted that the number of potential donors is very limited. So, out of 4,700 people who recovered (at the time of publishing the post of Yefymenko) in Ukraine, 40% are older than 60 years and cannot be donors, 20% cannot be donors according to their indications.
“There remain 1,800 people in a large, forty-million country, who need to be found, and not all, but volunteers who are ready to become a donor,” he explained.
As reported, Biopharma has begun the development of a hyperimmune immunoglobulin based on plasma of people who had COVID-19, this drug can be effective for specific treatment of COVID-19.
Biopharma is a Ukrainian biotechnology company, the only plant in Eastern Europe that has modern technology, has been manufacturing and developing drugs from donated plasma for almost 50 years.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) urges citizens who came through coronavirus (COVID-19) to become plasma donors to develop a medicine against this disease, which the company is launching. The company told Interfax-Ukraine that hyperimmune immunoglobulin may be effective for specific treatment of COVID-19.
The development of the medicine is carried out under Biopharma’s participation in the work of the International alliance of companies specializing in the production of blood plasma medicines, which also includes Takeda and CSL, Octapharma, Biotest, BPL, LFB, Sanquin, GreenCros, ADMA Biologics.
“Our plasma centers in Sumy, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Kharkiv began plasma blank. All the facilities of our plant in Bila Tserkva, all the forces of our team are directed to the development of medicines. I am sure that effective treatment of COVID-19 will appear,” co-owner of the company Kostiantyn Yefymenko wrote on Facebook.
In turn, businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky, a co-owner of Biopharma as well, said that the development of an effective medicine against COVID-19 requires the support of people around the world who are ready to donate their plasma after coming through the disease.
“We urge those who have recovered to contribute to the fight against the pandemic and, if their health allows, to become a donor,” he wrote on Facebook.
The company said that Biopharma urged all survivors who wish to become blood plasma donors to contact the company’s hotline. Donors will be transported to their plasma centers, where blood plasma can be donated, and back, and they will get compensation for donation.
The company said that it is ready to register and transfer donors from any settlements.
In addition, Biopharma said that one more direction of the fight against coronavirus infection is the clinical study that have begun to evaluate the effectiveness of Bioven medicine manufactured by Biopharma Plazma LLC in the complex treatment of patients with pneumonia caused by COVID-19 and SARS- CoV-2 coronavirus infection.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company has sent UAH 6 million to buy equipment for the reference laboratory of the Public Health Center, which will be used to diagnose the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
As the company told Interfax-Ukraine, the equipment will allow quickly determining the presence or absence of the coronavirus disease pathogens in the samples obtained, using modern methods.
The first unit is Thermo Fisher Scitific Nucleic automatic acid extraction workstation with consumables for 20,000 samples. It helps prepare samples for analysis.
The second unit is Bio-Rad CFX 96 PCR detection system, which already directly determines the DNA of the virus, as well as test systems for it.
The equipment was purchased at the initiative of Biopharma co-owners Kostiantyn Yefymenko and Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
The Public Health Center said that the number of samples sent for verification is growing daily, so new equipment will allow quick testing.
The complex, which will be launched on Saturday, allows processing up to 100 samples in 60 minutes that is, up to 2,000 per day.
Earlier, Biopharma transferred the necessary equipment for UAH 5 million for the Bila Tserkva hospital three. In total, Biopharma sent more than UAH 11 million to support measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
BIOPHARMA, EQUIPMENT, HEALTH CENTER, PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY, PUBLIC
Biopharma, which is one of the ten largest Ukrainian manufacturers of the pharmaceutical industry and specializes in human blood plasma drugs, has submitted to the laboratories of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine equipment that will allow the presence and absence of samples to be determined quickly and by modern methods agents of coronavirus disease. This decision, in conjunction with entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky’s UFuture holding company, is a continuation of a series of social initiatives undertaken by Ukrainian entrepreneurs amid a coronavirus pandemic.
“The Center will become the main reference site that will monitor the correctness of diagnostics throughout Ukraine. In other words, samples from laboratories will be sent here to confirm or refute the diagnosis. Without the transferred equipment, effective control of coronavirus disease in Ukraine would be defective,” Kostiantyn Yefymenko, President of Biopharma, reported.
The first unit is the Nuclear Acid Extraction Equipment from Thermo Fisher Scitific with consumables for 20,000 samples. The equipment helps prepare samples for analysis. The second unit is the equipment of Bio-Rad CFX 96 for molecular genetic analysis by PCR for the presence of a DNA virus and a system test for the detection of COVID-19.
The total cost of the equipment exceeds six million UAH, its installation and startup is performed by the company “ALT Ukraine LTD”. The equipment allows to process up to 100 samples in 60 minutes and in total about 2 thousand analyzes per day.
“Business should do everything in its power to stop the spread of the coronavirus and bring Ukraine back to normal. First of all, we need quality and timely diagnostics. already hundreds of millions of hryvnias and assistance continues,” Vasyl Khmelnytsky, founder of UFuture, said.
In addition, UFuture purchased two lung ventilation devices and all materials for their operation for the amount of 1 million 700 thousand UAH to one of the hospitals in Kyiv, and Biopharma — equipment for Bila Tserkva city hospital №3 (reference infectious hospital for the Kyiv region) with an amount of five million UAH.
Among them:
• two AR-203 artificial ventilation apparatus;
• AS-200 biochemical automatic analyzer;
• 3-Part DiffH 18 light hematology analyzer;
• EasyStat blood gas and electrolyte analyzer;
• BM1600 patient monitor with BM200 module;
• Laura Smart urine analyzer;
• two microscopes Micromed Fusion FS-7620.
The total cost of assistance from the holding companies is more than 12 million UAH. Also, masks and systems for rapid tests for the hospitals of Bila Tserkva will be purchased soon.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
UFuture is a holding company of Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky that integrates his business and impact-investment projects. The company has a diversified portfolio of assets in the fields of real estate, infrastructure, industry, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and IT. Currently, UFuture’s assets are estimated at $550 million, and the total capitalization of the businesses it invested in is more than $1 billion.
Biopharma is a Ukrainian immunobiological pharmaceutical company that which specializes in the drugs of human blood plasma. The number of employees – more than 300 people. The company exports drugs to 36 countries. In 2019, the company opened in Bila Tserkva a “built from scratch” manufacturing facility, investing about $75 million. Its the only plant of its kind in Eastern Europe.
