Biopharma (Kyiv) plans to open a biology school on July 1 in Bila Tserkva (Kyiv region), where the company’s main production facilities are located, said Konstantin Efimenko, president and co-owner of the company, member of the Council for Support of Entrepreneurship under Martial Law (Council of Seven).
“Our goal is to popularize biology at school; create a base for preparing the Ukrainian team for participation in the International Biology Olympiads; organize a place for the practical round of the All-Ukrainian Biology Olympiad; become one of the leaders at the International Olympiads,” Yefymenko wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.
According to him, by July 1, Biopharma plans to create a team of 10 best teachers in various fields of biology, form classes for theoretical and practical classes, and fill them with the necessary equipment, including pH meters, systems for the isolation of RNA/DNA nucleic acids, biological, digital, digital microscopes, immunohistochemistry equipment, CO2 incubators, gas and liquid chromatographs, Dewar cryostorage, etc.
It is expected that classes at the Bioschool will be available for 30-40 best biology students in grades 8-11, and scholarships will be provided for teachers who have taught the winners of the All-Ukrainian Olympiad and winners.
The Bioschool project aims to create a school biology classroom as a product with subsequent installation in Ukrainian schools, as well as online lectures for free access.
Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company based in Kyiv, plans to triple the number of its plasma centers to 30 by 2027, according to the company’s president Konstantin Efimenko.
“We plan to increase the number of plasma centers. Currently, there are 10 of them, but by 2027 we want to increase their number to 30,” he said during the forum “Dialogues on Sustainability. How Business Develops in Times of War” forum in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the company “has not stopped working for almost a single day.”
In particular, in March 2022, Biopharma built a complex of diesel generator stations with a total capacity of 2 mW and purchased four 10 cubic meters of fuel tanks, built bomb shelters at the plant and in its office in Kyiv.
As reported, in 2020, Biopharma announced plans to invest $20-23 million in the development of a network of plasma centers by 2025 and build plasma and blood centers in every regional center of Ukraine.
Biopharma is exploring the possibility of building a new plant by 2027, the company’s president Konstantin Efimenko said.
“We have already processed almost 300 thousand liters of plasma, the company’s turnover is slightly more than $100 million, and we need to triple the company’s turnover in four years. But it will not be possible to increase capacity further, we need to build a new plant. The new plant should be ready by 2027. To make it ready by 2027, we need to start tomorrow,” he said during the forum “Dialogues on Sustainability. How Business Develops in Times of War” forum in Kyiv on Thursday.
Efymenko also said that Biopharma plans to build a plant in Romania, but this is not a strategy to reduce dependence on Ukraine, but a way to “increase turnover.”
At the same time, Efimenko noted that attracting investments to Ukraine is currently hampered, in particular, by the issues of war risk insurance and the withdrawal of dividends.
“Biopharma is concerned about this issue, but not so much, because we are here with the foundation of the White Church, with the land. We are already here and will be here. But I am worried about other investors coming here, because the question will arise who needs our country,” he said.
As reported, Biopharma plans to triple the number of its plasma centers to 30 by 2027.
Biopharma covers demand of the domestic market for blood products by 100%, it can resume their export, Oksana Muliarchuk, director of the company’s plasma center network, has said.
“The need for blood products is now 100% closed, we are closing the need for all hospitals, including military ones,” she told Interfax-Ukraine.
Muliarchuk explained that the need for such drugs has decreased since the beginning of the war, in particular due to the fact that a significant part of cancer patients who need such drugs have gone abroad.
At the same time, she noted that the Ministry of Health constantly monitors the availability of stocks of blood products in warehouses.
In addition, according to Maliarchuk, Biopharma began to restore the work of its plasma centers. So, for two months since the beginning of the war, plasma centers in Cherkasy and Sumy had been operating, which prepared only blood components, and in early May, the company resumed the work of plasma collection centers in Cherkasy and Kamianske, and is launching the center in Sumy.
“Unfortunately, we have centers where we cannot resume work yet. For example, in Kharkiv we cannot resume work due to hostilities. In Kyiv, the work of a plasma center has not been resumed for technical reasons – we are waiting for the opportunity to equip a bomb shelter in the building where it is located,” she said.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers provided for the possibility of lifting a ban on the export of blood products until martial law is lifted on the basis of a reasonable submission from the Ministry of Health, subject to meeting the needs of the healthcare system in such drugs.
Earlier, the biopharmaceutical company Biopharma (Kyiv) announced plans to invest $20-23 million in the development of a network of plasma centers by 2025, build plasma centers and blood centers in every regional center of Ukraine.
Biopharmaceutical company Biopharma (Kyiv) has started the production a hyperimmune globulin drug, potentially effective against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, the drug is to be produced at the end of February.
The first fusion of plasma with antibodies against COVID-19 in the amount of 2,100 liters took place on January 25, the company said in a press release.
“The product will be supplied to the finished goods warehouse at the end of February. Further, the drug is tested in an independent French laboratory, which in March must confirm the antiviral activity of the drug,” the press release said.
The company said that in case of a positive conclusion of the European laboratory, Biopharma will be able to start clinical trials of the drugs in Ukraine.
The collection of plasma with antibodies against COVID-19 started in the spring of 2020 in cooperation with the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, of which Biopharma is a member. The goal of the alliance is to accelerate the development and provide reliable and sustainable treatment for people with complex coronavirus disease.
In October 2020, within the framework of the alliance, the third phase of a clinical trial of inpatient treatment with anti-coronavirus immunoglobulin started.
The results of clinical trials are planned to be published in April 2021. If the trials are successful, the new treatment could provide hope for those suffering from serious health consequences from COVID-19.
“To date, thanks to caring donors in Ukraine, it has been possible to collect about 10,700 liters of plasma from those who have overcome COVID-19. This amount of plasma will save hundreds of lives of Ukrainians. We thank every donor who has shared his part of antibodies to help seriously ill patients. And we continue to appeal to those who are not indifferent, to become plasma donors for the creation of vital drugs,” President of the company Kostiantyn Yefymenko said.
As reported, the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance was formed in April 2020 to fight the COVID 19 pandemic and to help develop potential plasma therapy for people who are prone to serious complications from COVID 19.
Biopharma is a Ukrainian biotechnology company, the only plant in Eastern Europe that has modern technologies, has been producing and developing drugs from donor plasma for almost 50 years.
The company is focused on providing medicines to Ukraine and on a contract basis, supplies its products to more than 30 countries around the world. In the fall of 2019, Biopharma moved its production to a new research and production complex in Bila Tserkva.
The company is developing a network of its own plasma centers. The company’s investments in this area of activity amounted to more than $10 million.
Biopharmaceutical company Biopharma (Kyiv) plans to invest from $20 million to $23 million in the development of a network of plasma centers by 2025, Biopharma President Kostiantyn Yefymenko said.
“We plan to invest about $15 million in the next three years (in 2021, 2022 and 2023) in the development of blood plasma processing facilities at our site in Bila Tserkva. And we plan to invest in plasma centers during this time about $20-23 million by 2025,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
Yefymenko said that the company already has seven plasma centers, including in Cherkasy, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Konotop, Shostka and Sumy.
In 2021, Biopharma plans to build four more plasma centers in Kamianske, Mykolaiv and Poltava.
“As for the fourth plasma center […] we are now thinking whether it will be Kryvy Rih or Kherson. We intend to build plasma centers and blood centers in every regional center of Ukraine in five years,” Yefymenko said.
