The pharmaceutical company JSC Farmak (Kyiv) has received a request from the Ministry of Health and scientists regarding the possibility of its involvement in clinical trials of a Ukrainian vaccine against COVID-19, the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Farmak has recently received a request from the Ministry of Health and scientists about the possibility of involving the company in clinical trials of the Ukrainian vaccine against COVID-19. Also, the state received a request for the possibility of industrial production of the vaccine (if its safety and effectiveness are proved),” the company said.
Currently, Farmak is studying the request: the company’s experts are analyzing the available materials related to the development and are consulting with scientists and representatives of the Ministry of Health.
As reported, the state intends to fund clinical trials of the vaccine.
Farmak manufactures medicines in all fourteen therapeutic groups. Among the main directions are anti-cold, endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological portfolios. The company annually introduces to the market about 20 new complex-component modern drugs, and about 100 drugs are currently in development.
Over the past five years, Farmak’s investments in the scientific and technical complex, production equipment, and research activities amounted to UAH 3.4 billion.
In 2019, Farmak received a net profit of UAH 1.056 billion, which is almost the same as in 2018 at UAH 1.05 billion, while in 2018 Farmak increased its net profit by 25.16%.
JSC Farmak is a member of the Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine Association.
According to the unified state register of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the ultimate beneficial owner of Farmak is the head of the supervisory board, Filya Zhebrovska, who owns 80% of the company’s shares.
The website of the Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) is visited by about 400,000 people per month.
According to a Farmak’s press release, the pharmaceutical company entered the top 10 companies according to the Company Transparency Index 2019, calculated by the Corporate Governance Professional Association in cooperation with the Corporate Social Responsibility Development center and with the support of CIPE and assistance of the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture.
The top 10 index leaders provide more than 50% of the information that was included in the evaluation categories, while the overall level of transparency of the websites of other companies in Ukraine is about 25%.
The Index survey showed that most often companies post information related to environmental protection, labor relations, work with communities, corporate governance, company management, composition of the supervisory board, information for investors, anti-corruption programs on their websites.
Executive Director of Farmak Volodymyr Kostiuk said that “information openness is a requirement of the time, without which the company cannot become successful.”
“International investors and partners are actively exploring the information space about the company. This is extremely important for us. After all, we export products to 28 countries,” he said.
Kostiuk said that Farmak publishes financial statements according to international standards every year. And having become a member of the UN Global Compact, in 2020 Farmak first published the company’s non-financial statements.
“In addition to the main website of the company, we also have the websites of our representative offices, where relevant information for these countries is collected. The company also has active pages on social networks Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Only on Facebook, 24,000 users have already subscribed to the Farmak page,” he said.
JSC Farmak will meet its output target by the end of 2020, anticipates Farmak Executive Director Volodymyr Kostiuk.
“We do not expect to go into the red this year. We will have probably get what we planned by the end of the year,” he said to Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the presentation of Ukraine’s first mobile pharmaceutical museum.
Kostiuk believes that the implementation of the target indicators will be achieved, in particular, due to increased exports.
“In particular, we managed to export to other countries a lot. The Ukrainian market has contracted,” he stated.
Kostiuk noted that during the quarantine nearly 400 employees worked remotely with their salary paid in full.
“At the height of the quarantine 400 employees worked remotely. Now there are slightly fewer of them, but we are gradually increasing this number due to the worsening epidemical situation and a growing number of COVID cases. All employees on remote work receive full salaries,” he said.
Kostiuk also said that with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Farmak started producing antiseptic for the company’s needs.
“We developed it very quickly basing on WHO formula to meet our company needs. We do not produce it now,” he said.
Kostiuk also said Farmak continues clinical trials on the effectiveness of the company’s Amizon drug in treating COVID-19 infected patients.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market with a 5.9% stake in monetary terms.
Over the past five years, Farmak’s investments in the scientific and technical complex, production equipment and research activities amounted to UAH 3.4 billion.
PJSC Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) in April-July exported to the EU propofol, a medication that is used for artificial lung ventilation of patients with coronavirus (COVID-19), worth more than $635,000,
The company told Interfax-Ukraine that due to the shortage of this medication in the EU and its active use for treatment of COVID-19 patients the supplies of the medication were carried out without its registration at the EU’s profile agency, which is a mandatory condition for sale of drugs in Europe.
“Such an exclusion is connected with the crisis, and at the same time it shows the level of confidence in Ukrainian manufacturers and quality of their products,” the company said.
PJSC Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) will use the German scientists’ protocol of clinical trials of the antiviral medicine efficiency, produced by Farmak for coronavirus (COVID-19) treatment, the company’s press service said with reference to Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of Farmak Filya Zhebrovska.
“This medicine was tested apart from human trials and showed good results. We need to come to clinical trials and conduct them, so that in the autumn we know that this medicine is effective and it can fight COVID-19. German scientists helped us indeed. They have prepared the clinical trial protocol correctly, so that we can investigate if this medicine is working according to all necessary criteria. This is a big, hard and expensive work,” she said.
Zhebrovska said that the antiviral medicine, which efficiency against COVID-19 Farmak plans to test, is also being studied by foreign research centers.
“There are good studies on our antiviral medicine at Oxford and Frankfurt universities,” she said.
Zhebrovska said that significant financial funds are needed for the development of COVID-19 vaccines, which Ukraine and the Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies do not currently have.
“The European Investment Bank organized a consortium together with the WHO and allocated EUR 7.6 billion for the development of vaccines for COVID-19. Neither Farmak, nor Ukraine, unfortunately, have such financial capacities. Perhaps we can join to these works at some stage,” she said.
Farmak is the leader in the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine in terms of sales. It exports products to 20 countries.
Private joint-stock company Farmak (Kyiv), the pharmaceutical company, did not halt production and will gradually exit lockdown, the press service of the company has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Farmak continues production as usual. All lines are working as planned. However, after lockdown was announced all over the country on March 12 and the Health Ministry recommended that enterprises transfer employees to remote work, if possible, Farmak transferred some employees to remote work,” the company said.
According to the company, in particular, within the framework of lockdown restrictions introduced in the country, the sanitary regime was tightened to provide additional protection for workers, members of their families and to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease COVID-10, and a reserve of disinfection and personal protective equipment was created.
The company also developed an algorithm of actions and escort routes for people with signs of ARVI, limited mass meetings, replacing them with remote meetings, suspended business trips of employees abroad, and limited business trips within Ukraine.
Workers who returned from abroad starting March 16, switched to telework for 14 days,” the company said.
During lockdown, to ensure uninterrupted operation, Farmak developed routes and a schedule for centralized transportation of employees from their places of residence at 5.45 a.m., and a carsharing group was created to deliver employees to the office.
The press service of Farmak noted an increased demand for medicines manufactured by the company.
“Production is responding to increased demand. Our mission is to make affordable and effective medicines available for treatment, so we quickly adapt to changing market needs. For example, Farmak produces medicines (Amizon, Nazoferon, Gropivirin, Pelorsin) that can be used to treat and prevent influenza and ARVI,” the company said.
