Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, pharma company Novo Nordisk has provided Ukraine with humanitarian and charitable assistance in various ways for more than 900 million UAH.
According to its press release, in addition, throughout 2019-2023, more than 100 Ukrainian hospitals have received equipment for continuous blood glucose measurement totaling UAH 8 million from the company.
“In the first months of the war, to avoid shortages of insulin and other vital drugs, we transferred to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine a six-month supply of insulins of different types and more than a third of the annual need for blood clotting factors. Together we were able to provide insulins to more than 50 thousand patients in different parts of Ukraine”, – the press release quotes the words of the General Director of “Novo Nordisk Ukraine” Vladislav Moroz.
It is specified that since the beginning of the full-scale war humanitarian aid from Novo Nordisk with insulins and other medicines has been delivered to hot spots in the temporarily occupied territories in cooperation with volunteers and charitable organizations, in particular, BF Zhiznelyub, BF Patients of Ukraine, BF Save Mariupol.
In addition, Novo Nordisk joined an international initiative to rebuild Mykolayiv and Mykolayiv region affected by the war.
“Novo Nordisk has allocated $5 million, which will be used to restore critical infrastructure in Nikolaev, in particular water and power plants, and humanitarian aid to the residents of the city and region. A separate budget is provided for the restoration of medical infrastructure and additional supplies of medical equipment needed by hospitals in Mykolaiv and the region,” Moroz said.
Novo Nordisk is a leading global medical company founded in 1923 and headquartered in Denmark. The company specializes in overcoming diabetes and other serious chronic diseases such as obesity, rare blood clotting and endocrine disorders. The company employs about 55,000 people in 80 countries and sells its products in about 170 countries.
Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odessa, Ukraine) received as humanitarian aid the drug melphalan for the treatment of retinoblastoma, an intraocular malignant tumor in children.
As the Interfax-Ukraine agency was informed at the clinic, the drug is used to treat this tumor with the Institute’s own combined polychemotherapy method which implies injecting the drug directly into the tumor in combination with general polychemotherapy. This method allows to save the eye affected by the tumor and even vision in 80% of cases, including those with retinoblastoma stage 3-4.
The drug used for intraocular injections is melphalan, which is produced by Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited.
“Unfortunately, recently it has been impossible to purchase melphalan for injections in Ukraine. The institute has taken active steps to obtain the drug,” the institute reported.
Obtaining the drug was made possible thanks to the efforts of Olga Nikitchenko, head of the patronage service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa Lubov Abravitova, and Stavros Nikolau, senior executive director of Aspen Group, with support from the We Stand with Ukraine Foundation.
“The drug was delivered to the Filatov Institute. And literally the next day the first patient received treatment to save his vision and life,” the clinic reported.
Retinoblastoma is an intraocular highly malignant retinal tumor that develops mainly in children in the first two years of life and accounts for 89.3% to 98.2% of all intraocular neoplasms in children. Retinoblastoma incidence rate in the world is currently 1 case per 10-15 thousands newborns.
Due to asymptomatic course of the disease the majority of children (85-86%) come to the clinics with far advanced stage of retinoblastoma and even up to now many clinics have considered that the only way to save the life of the child was to remove the tumor together with the eye.
Retinoblastoma treatment in Ukraine is carried out at the Department of Pediatric Ophthalmopathology of the Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy. V.P.Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of NAMS of Ukraine”. In recent years, the clinic has treated about 300 children with retinoblastoma aged from three months to eight years. One child receives from three to 20 injections, depending on the stage of the disease.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to increase humanitarian aid to Africa and Asia by an additional 21,000 tons of corn or wheat, and also changed the terms of their delivery from CIF (sender pays cargo insurance) to FOB (delivery of goods before loading on board the ship).
According to the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk in his Telegram channel, the relevant decision was taken at a government meeting on Friday.
Earlier, in November, the government passed resolution No. 1313, approving the allocation of 900 million UAH to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (MIA) for its constituent State Emergency Service (SES) to purchase in Ukraine and subsequent delivery to the Republic of Sudan, Republic of Yemen, Republic of Kenya and Federal Republic of Nigeria of up to 64 thousand tons of corn or wheat grain. In addition, Ukraine undertook to send at least 125 thousand tons of wheat and corn (quality not lower than the 3rd class).
Thus, taking into account the decree adopted on 23 December, the four countries will receive from Ukraine up to 210 thousand tons of grain.
City One Development together with Valeriy Kodetsky’s charitable fund UNITA delivered and handed over 80 tons of humanitarian aid to the front-line de-occupied communities of Kherson Oblast.
According to the Foundation’s press service, residents of the liberated territories of Kherson received 4,500 food packages, as well as personal hygiene products for adults and children.
Eight ambulances were sent for the needs of Kherson region, one of which was sent to Bilozersk district hospital. Generators and 1,000 sets of medicines for primary care were also handed over to medics.
Humanitarian aid was delivered to de-occupied settlements: Aleksandrovka, Belozerka, Dniprovske, Chornobaivka, Stanislav, Shirokaya Balka, Mirolyubovka and others.
As was reported, UNITA Charitable Foundation in cooperation with the City One Development Company delivered more than 300 tons of humanitarian aid to Kyiv, Bucha, Irpen, Berezan, Bilogorodka, Boyarka, Akhtyrka, Poltava and Bakhmut communities from March to June. More than 30 thousand families have received targeted help.
The charitable Civil Solidarity Fund “UNITA” was founded in 2015 by Valeriy Kodetsky, a Ukrainian entrepreneur, owner, and president of City One Development Group. During the four months of Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine, the fund and City One Development allocated more than 40 million hryvnias for charitable purposes.
Founded in 2010, the investment and development company City One Development provides a range of services in the creation and development of real estate. The company’s projects include Novopecherskie Lipki, Fountain Boulevard and Svyatobor. The real estate portfolio amounts to over 900 thousand sqm, with 600 thousand sqm under construction.
CITY ONE DEVELOPMENT, HUMANITARIAN AID, KHERSON REGION, УНИТА
Germany will provide another EUR 40 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany Anna Lührmann has said.
“I also came today to announce that Germany will provide EUR 40 million in humanitarian aid to help this winter. We will also provide an additional EUR 5 million for the reconstruction of Ukrainian schools along with the UNDP,” Lührmann told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
She added that the process of transferring equipment to help during the upcoming winter is already underway, in particular, generators for more than EUR 11 million, which will arrive in Ukraine soon.
Lührmann arrived in Ukraine as part of a delegation of other high-ranking European officials. In particular, Vice-President of the European Parliament Nikola Beer, Federal Minister for the EU and Constitution at the Federal Chancellery of Austria Karoline Edtstadler, State Secretary for Europe of Croatia Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport of Liechtenstein Dominique Hasler, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry Foreign Affairs of Latvia Gunda Reire, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Jovita Neliupšienė, and Romanian Foreign Ministry Secretary of State for Global Affairs Daniela Gitman.
Thus, Gitman said that her country would provide EUR 300,000 UNHCR to help the Ukrainian population in winter.
Edtstadler said that Austria has provided Ukraine with the largest humanitarian aid package in history, amounting to more than EUR 92 million.
“In addition, we are providing EUR 100,000 to the International Criminal Court because it is important for me, as a former criminal judge, to ensure an independent investigation of war crimes and to start gathering evidence,” Edtstadler said.
Reire announced that a women’s rehabilitation center in Ivano-Frankivsk, which is partly funded by Latvia, will start operating next week. “It will provide shelter, a wide range of rehabilitation services, legal counseling, psychological assistance to women who are victims of sexual violence,” Reire said.
The United Arab Emirates announced the allocation of humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the amount of $100 million, the press service of the UAE Permanent Mission to the UN reports.
“The international community must step up its support to alleviate the suffering of civilians and ensure that their basic needs are met. To this end, earlier this week, the UAE announced a US$100 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine,” the statement said on Thursday night. Saturday.
On October 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a conversation with the head of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, on October 17.
