President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed decree No. 75/2021 on the appointment of Oksana Markarova as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States of America, the official website of the head of the Ukrainian state reported on Thursday.
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina has made it to the semifinals of the season’s final tournament of the U.S. Open, the organization said on its Twitter account.
Svitolina held the quarterfinal match of the U.S. Open against the British Johanna Konta, which lasted 1 hour 40 minutes.
The Ukrainian tennis player held the match without making a single double mistake, making four aces and gave only two aces of her – 6:4, 6:4.
In the semifinals of the U.S. Open, Svitolina will play with the winner of the pair Serena Williams – Wang Qiang.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in November improved the forecast for soybean exports from Ukraine for the 2018/2019 marketing year (MY, September-August) by 5%, or 150,000 tonnes compared to the September forecast, to 3.1 million tonnes. According to a report on the website of the American department, the USDA increased the forecast for oilseed exports from Ukraine by 100,000 tonnes, to 5.7 million tonnes, processing by 50,000 tonnes, to 15.55 million tonnes. The USDA forecast for meal exports was adjusted upward by 80,000 tonnes, to 5.15 million tonnes, oil by 20,000 tonnes, to 5.85 million tonnes.
According to the USDA forecasts, in the 2018/19 MY sunflower seed production in Ukraine will increase by 9.5% compared to the previous marketing year, to 15 million tonnes, meal by 6%, to 5.98 million tonnes, and oil also by 6%, to 6.2 million tonnes.
The export of sunflower seeds in the 2018/2019 MY could increase by 2.6 times, to 100,000 tonnes, meal by 8.5%, to 4.6 million tonnes, oil by 5%, to 5.6 million tonnes.
The USDA lowered the forecast for global production of oilseeds this month to 599.6 million tonnes (604 million tonnes in the September forecast).
The goods turnover between Ukraine and the United States in January-August 2019 grew by 16% year-over-year, to $2.6 billion, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv has said.
“Bilateral trade in the eight months of 2018 increased by 16% and amounted to almost $2.6 billion. Exports to the United States grew by almost 32% and imports by 11%,” Kubiv said, opening the first official U.S. trade mission in Kyiv on Monday.
He also said that over three and a half years in Ukraine 80 factories were built with the attraction of foreign investment or are under construction. The leader in investing in the construction of factories is Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
“The outright leader in attracting investments is Lviv region, where 18 factories with the attraction of foreign investors have been built or their construction is ending since 2015. The second place in attracting investments in the number of projects is occupied by Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions – six factories each,” Kubiv said.
The U.S. trade mission in Ukraine consists of four sections – IT, agriculture, infrastructure, and energy. The United States represents three companies in each of these areas.
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).
Ukraine in January-June 2018 increased exports of steel-making pig iron in natural terms by 88.9% compared to the same period last year, to 1.592 million tonnes.
According to customs statistics released by the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, during this period exports of pig iron in monetary terms increased by 52.4%, to $544.138 million.
At the same time, exports were mainly carried out to the United States (57.87% of deliveries in monetary terms), Italy (14.55%), and Turkey (9.18%).
Ukraine in January-June 2018 imported 652 tonnes of similar products for $367,000, whereas in January-June 2017 some 1,240 tonnes for $623,000. Imports were carried out from Russia (77.66% of deliveries in monetary terms), and Germany (22.34%).
As reported, in 2017 Ukraine cut exports of steel-making pig iron in natural terms by 7.8% year-on-year, to 2.342 million tonnes, but increased exports in monetary terms by 33.9%, to $738.130 million. Exports were mainly carried out to the United States (55.05% of deliveries in monetary terms), Italy (24.69%), and Turkey (7.95%).
Ukraine in 2017 imported 2,000 tonnes of similar products for $1.020 million, whereas in 2016 some 1,755 tonnes for $661,000. Imports were carried out from Russia (86.37% of deliveries in monetary terms), Germany (13.43%), and Denmark (0.2%).
