Business news from Ukraine

FARMAK RAISES CAPITAL INVESTMENTS BY 78% IN 2020

The pharmaceutical company Farmak increased capital investments by 78% in 2020 compared to 2019, to UAH 1.3 billion.
According to the company’s press release, the main investment projects last year are the launch of a new workshop for the production of sterile drugs and the start of construction of an R&D center, which will develop modern complex component drugs.
Farmak’s research and development expenditures in 2020 amounted to UAH 448 million.
In addition, the company’s funds were used to modernize and equip existing sites, bring production facilities in line with FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) requirements, energy saving projects, develop a laboratory complex, and implement IT projects to automate business processes.
The company also said that in 2020 Farmak paid UAH 712.1 million in taxes, and the number of employees for the specified reporting period increased to 2,761 people.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups. Annually, the company introduces to the market about 20 new complex component modern drugs. Currently, there are about 100 drugs in development. The company exports products to more than 25 countries around the world.
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.
JSC Farmak is a member of the Association of Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).

, ,

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY FARMAK INTENSIFYING DIGITALIZATION DEVELOPMENT

The pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) is intensifying the development of digitalization in order to scale up its business and build up its presence in world markets.
“Farmak is one of the largest exporters of domestic medicines. To scale up the business and build up its presence in the world, the company digitalizes all production and management processes. A transparent IT system for reporting, budgeting, production planning, sales, workflow, personnel assessment and training has been implemented at Farmak,” the company said in a press release.
According to Chief Information Officer at Farmak Denys Krestov, Farmak focuses on deep industrial digitalization processes.
“We are gradually switching to electronic quality certificates, electronic research protocols, electronic dossiers, e-serialization of products, and so on. Every day the system administration department maintains 30 physical platforms and more than 150 virtual ones that support the operation of business applications,” the company’s press service said, citing Krestov.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups.
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.
JSC Farmak is a member of the Association of Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).

,

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY FARMAK STANDS FOR MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF RESULTS OF GMP INSPECTIONS WITHIN UKRAINE-EU DIALOGUE

The pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) stands for mutual recognition of the results of good manufacturing practice (GMP) checks in production of medicines within the framework of the Ukraine-EU industrial dialogue. “A key prerequisite for realizing cooperation opportunities between the Ukrainian and European pharmaceutical sectors is to update the scope of the future ACAA agreement (Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Goods) with the EU. First of all, to include provisions on the mutual recognition of the results of audits of good manufacturing practice in the pharmaceutical sector (GMP),” Yevhenia Piddubna, the director for corporate communications at Farmak, told Interfax-Ukraine.
She also noted the high potential for the participation of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry in the diversification of European supply chains for critical medicines in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Farmak is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in Ukraine, specializing in the production of modern high-tech drugs. At the company’s production sites, a pharmaceutical quality system has been introduced and it is constantly being improved in accordance with the current regulatory requirements and in accordance with international standards: ISO, GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice). The company undergoes several international inspections and audits annually.
The company is included in the top 100 largest taxpayers in Ukraine. In 2020, Farmak paid taxes totaling more than UAH 712 million, including UAH 120 million to the Kyiv city budget.
Farmak is a member of the Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine association.

, ,

UKRAINIAN FARMAK WITH SCIENTISTS CREATES PCR TEST THAT DETECTS NEW STRAINS OF CORONAVIRUS

A team of Ukrainian researchers, which included scientists from JSC Farmak pharmaceutical company and the Hromashevsky Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, have developed a PCR test capable of detecting even new strains of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus. According to the company’s press release, the availability of technological equipment purchased by Farmak allowed for the first time in Ukraine to carry out the sequencing procedure. This is “reading” the sequence of nucleotides in the RNA of the virus “as spelling a text.”
“Sequencing allows, in case of revealing differences in the genetic text (mutations), to draw conclusions about the presence of new strains of the virus. The results of the study, in fact, confirmed the presence of a new strain of coronavirus in Ukraine,” the researchers said.
The results of the study, as well as information about the virus strains circulating in Ukraine since the beginning of the pandemic, have already been posted in the GISAID international initiative promoting the rapid sharing of data from all influenza viruses and the coronavirus causing COVID-19.
Farmak said that on March 3, the research team confirmed that the new PCR test system developed by the pharmaceutical company’s specialists, in addition to the already widespread strains, also detects the new UK variant of coronavirus.
The Farmak test system was based on the TaqPath COVID 19 RT PCR Kit (Thermo Scientific, the United States), which is authorized by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA). High quality components made in the United States are used for the production of the new SARS-CoV-2 test kit.
The quality of the new test kit is confirmed by the relevant findings of the Hromashevsky Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv) and the Mechnikov Institute of Microbiology and Immunology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Kharkiv). Reference trials of the PCR test kit are carried out in private and public laboratories in Ukraine (Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Vinnytsia), confirming its effectiveness.
Farmak said that the new test kit has opened up to pre-purchasing.

, , , ,

UKRAINIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY FARMAK PLANS TO DEVELOP R&D CLUSTER IN KIEV

The Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv), thanks to the decision of Kyiv City Council to sell a land plot to the pharmaceutical company, plans to develop an R&D cluster project.
According to a press release on the company’s website, on February 11 this year, Kyiv City Council, by an absolute majority of votes, decided to sell the company the land on which the production facilities of Farmak plant have been located for 95 years.
The intended use of land defined by the document is the operation and maintenance of a complex of buildings and structures.
“Farmak expresses gratitude to the deputies for supporting the development of a virtuous and transparent business. Production facilities, research facilities, the laboratory and technical complex of the enterprise are internationally certified and meet the high requirements of European standards. Now, thanks to the positive decision of the city council, we will be able to implement another ambitious project – the creation of a pharmaceutical R&D cluster to build up scientific and technical potential,” executive director of the company Volodymyr Kostiuk said.
He recalled that over the past 25 years, Farmak has invested more than $ 300 million in the modernization of the enterprise.
Technical director of Farmak Andriy Goy, in turn, emphasized that the creation of the R&D cluster will be a step forward towards the development of biomedical research and development in Ukraine and an important step towards the transformation of Kyiv into the capital of the European level.
“The main capital of Kyiv should be precisely an intellectual product,” he said.
The company is confident that the emergence of an R&D cluster will contribute to an increase in revenues to the city budget from knowledge-intensive sectors of the economy.

, , ,

FARMAK SUPPORTS BALANCED APPROACH TO REDUCING SANITARY ZONES OF ENTERPRISES

Farmak pharmaceutical company supports a balanced approach to revising state sanitary rules for the development of settlements in terms of reducing the sanitary zones of pharmaceutical companies.
“Farmak supports the gradual revision of state sanitary rules for planning and building up settlements in terms of reducing the sanitary zone of enterprises producing medicines. The process of revising state sanitary rules should be balanced and gradual, with constant expert monitoring of the level of impact of the enterprise’s work on the environmental situation and public health,” the company said in a statement posted on its website.
The company emphasizes that the current state sanitary rules adopted in 1996 are outdated and do not comply with the norms and rules that are in force in the EU.
“Now drug manufacturers use modern and safer equipment, the latest air and water purification systems, etc. The company has repeatedly informed the public about the removal of the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients that have the greatest impact on the environment outside Kyiv,” the company recalls.
Farmak notes that at present some media are conducting a targeted information attack on Kyiv-based plant Farmak.
“The most likely goal of the customers of the publications is to manipulate public opinion and Kyiv City Council deputies to clear the site in Podil for the next construction,” the company noted, stressing that the desire to build more residential buildings should not prevail over common sense.
“Neither the healthcare system, nor the economy of the country and, in particular, of Kyiv, can today afford to get rid of a European level manufacturer of medicines, a conscientious taxpayer, one of the best employers and exporter of products with high added value, to please the interests of individual business groups,” Farmak said.
“We are deeply convinced, provided that the general plan of the city is correctly drawn up, various formats of buildings can harmoniously coexist, as can be seen from numerous examples in the EU,” the report says.

,