Russian Drug Given Patent for Treatment of Coronavirus Even Though Trials Incomplete

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 6 – A modification of a drug used for the treatment of pancreatitis and related illnesses has now been given a patent for treatment of coronavirus infections even though it has yet to complete clinical trials supervised by the health ministry (fmba.gov.ru/press-tsentr/novosti/detail/?ELEMENT_ID=39824 and regnum.ru/news/3030582.html).

            Receiving a patent in this order will simultaneous protect the financial rights of the developing corporation and allow Moscow to claim a breakthrough on this medical front alone, even though in the absence of the completion of clinical trials, it is impossible to know whether this medication will be effective or not.

            Further confusion about Russian treatments for the coronavirus has been introduced by the discovery by consumer protection officials that some Russian firms are offering other medicines that supposedly help cure the infection even though there is no evidence that they do (regnum.ru/news/3030424.html).

            And in another indication that the race for treatments and vaccines in Russia is driven above all by the profit motive, a new Moscow analysis shows that Russian medications have risen in price by 24 percent over the last year, five to six times the inflation rate and far more than for imported drugs (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78852).

            Officials reported the registration of 5267 new cases of the infection in Russia over the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total to 871,894 and of 116 more coronavirus deaths, bringing that toll for the pandemic to 14,606 (t.me/COVID2019_official/1223).

            The pandemic continued to ebb and flow (regnum.ru/news/society/3028625.html). This produced a confusing and mixed picture: St. Petersburg, for example, saw some reductions in restrictions but more complaints about doctors not receiving the extra pay they were promised or the honors that had been announced (regnum.ru/news/3030432.html, regnum.ru/news/3030416.html and .fontanka.ru/2020/08/06/69407203/?ref=t).

            Moscow in contrast not only did not reverse its re-openings but announced that it was not making plans for doing so because “an explosive new growth” in the pandemic there “is not expected as the situation is stable (regnum.ru/news/3029857.html).

            Aeroflot announced that it was not restarting all the international routes it had earlier said it would because some countries it planned to resume flying to had not opened their skies to the Russian carrier (regnum.ru/news/3030249.html). And officials lifted some but not all of the quarantine restrictions on those coming into Russia (gosuslugi.ru/394604).

            One very important development now occurring in many places: the authorities are putting out special trash containers for used masks and gloves lest their disposal via normal trash collections contribute to the spread of the coronavirus (https://regnum.ru/news/3029863.html).

            In several places, Russian teachers are protesting against plans to reopen schools under the rules the Russian government has set. They say that those rules inflect “psychological” harm on the pupils (mk.ru/social/2020/08/06/uchitelya-vzbuntovalis-protiv-shkolnykh-pravil-s-1-sentyabrya.html).

            In economic news, during the last quarter, Russians sharply increased their use of credit cards to transfer funds internationally (edomosti.ru/finance/articles/2020/08/06/836137-perevodi-deneg); and the Russian government boosted gold sales by 11 times (finanz.ru/novosti/birzhevyye-tovary/vyvoz-zolota-iz-rossii-uskorilsya-v-9-raz-1029479616).

            But somewhat ominously, VTB Bank announced that because of the pandemic, Russians were likely going to see a decline in the yields of their savings in banks, a statement that may lead to further withdrawals from some already hard-pressed banking institutions (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78862  yields).

            Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments from Russia today,

·         Observers warned that Russians are suffering permanent psychological harm as a result of the pandemic with many of them becoming far more reluctant to reach out to others than they were before (mk.ru/social/2020/08/06/osobenno-tyazhelo-kogda-ukhodyat-deti.html and  kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5F2AF67E3818C).

·         More than a third of Russians say they are prepared to go into quarantine for two weeks in order to be able to make trips abroad (capost.media/news/otdykh/the-people-of-russia-have-informed-that-are-ready-to-make-sacrifices-for-the-sake-of-travel-abroad/).

·         And political analyst Boris Kagarlitsky says that with the pandemic, the economic crisis, and problems in foreign policy, the Kremlin has entered a period that might best be called “a perfect storm” that it will be hard for the country’s leaders to navigate (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78869).