Zaporizhia and Lviv international airports, the Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE), Azur Air Ukraine and SkyUp Airlines have sent a joint letter to the president, the prime minister and the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine with a request for state support for the aviation industry amid pandemic.
“Already today, judging by the losses incurred by the entire aviation market, it is possible to predict not only a complicated recovery process, but also the non-return of many participants to work in principle. The industry itself may be in danger of extinction,” the report says.
The companies note a serious lack of resources for fulfilling financial obligations to pay wages, service loans, make lease payments, under agreements with foreign partners, etc.
The airlines have compiled a list of measures adapted to Ukrainian realities that, in their opinion, must be taken to preserve the aviation industry. In particular, they ask to provide the industry with irrevocable financial assistance for the payment of wage arrears and tax holidays for taxes paid in connection with its payment. In addition, they ask for targeted, non-repayable assistance to pay off debts that have formed since the quarantine began in the country for services provided to aviation businesses by state enterprises and organizations.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine plans to maintain in the budget for 2019 the main programs of state support for the agro-industrial complex, which are being implemented this year, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.
“We’ve started a number of new programs this year and decided to keep these programs for the next years. In particular, we give support to each family that will raise calves in the amount of UAH 2,500 per animal. Some 103,800 citizens have already received this assistance, but we assume that this figure will rise by 5-7 times, and we are moving towards this,” he said at a government meeting.
According to the prime minister, next year the government intends to continue compensation for the cost of keeping dairy cows. At the same time, he added that 1,200 agribusinesses have received funds in this area from the state.
“We will continue the program of support for the production of Ukrainian agricultural machinery. Some 2,700 agricultural producers bought Ukrainian goods, part of the cost of which we compensated,” Groysman said.
At the same time, the premier added that the farming support program, under which UAH 1 billion was allocated, is not being fully implemented due to “the existing bureaucratic problems.”
AGRO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, GOVERNMENT, PROGRAMS, STATE SUPPORT
Original Ukrainian medicines are not available in the markets of the United States and the European Union (EU) over the absence of state support for research in Ukraine, Director General of Research and Industrial Center Borschahivka chemical and pharmaceutical plant (Kyiv) Yulia Zdarevska has said. “Original Ukrainians medicines are not usually introduced in the United States and the EU, not because of their low efficiency, but because of the lack of state support in Ukraine for the development of original drugs at the state or regional levels,” she told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of research on the market for drugs with insufficient evidence base, initiated by Anti Corruption Action Centre (AntAC) with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Zdarevska said that the lack of registration in the United States or Europe is not proof of the inefficiency of medicines.
“Throughout the world, the registration of the drug in the FDA and EMA is a voluntary decision, not an obligation. Therefore, the substitution of concepts is clearly visible, therefore we believe that the group of drugs mistakenly described in the report as “Medicines Without Proven Effectiveness” should be referred to as” Medicines, the Use of which in the United States or the EU was not Envisaged by the Developer,” she said.
The general director of the plant said that the cost of a full cycle of developing and approving a new original drug in the United States could reach $2 billion.
“These costs today are unaffordable for the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry,” she said.
Zdarevska said that the studies that pharmaceutical companies conduct to register their own drugs include safety and efficiency studies in accordance with established requirements.
“If these studies are not conducted, the drug cannot be registered. Thus, while demanding the prohibition of drugs not registered in the FDA and EMA, the authors of the research, in the first place, call into question the activities of state (and not only Ukrainian) regulatory authorities,” she said.
At the same time, Zdarevska said that the use of medicines in only one or several countries is a global practice, and the only necessary confirmation of the quality, effectiveness and safety of the drug is the availability of public registration.
She also recalled that in Ukraine for many years there is a pharmacovigilance system that allows the continuous collection, analysis and use of all information on side effects and the experience of clinical use of medicines.
Zdarevska said that Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies also export their medicines to more than 60 countries.
Research and Industrial Center Borschahivka chemical and pharmaceutical plant is among top 20 largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ukraine. It is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).
