Economic consequences of mandatory price re-registration for medicines from the high-cost nosology program

The Government Decree, approved in December 2019, required registration certificates holders of reference drugs, included in the essential drug list (EDL), submit applications for mandatory price re-registration. Drugs included in the high-cost nosology list (high-cost list) must be included in the EDL.Objective: to assess the budget impact of price re-registration for high-cost list drugs.Material and methods. The comparing economic analysis of high-cost nosology program before and after price re-registration based on the Government Decree N 1683 (effective from 16.12.2019). 125 reference stock keeping units (SKUs), included in the high-cost list, were evaluated.Results. The analysis showed, that after re-registration the prices of 66 SKUs will remain the same. The prices of 43 reference SKUs will be reduced after setting a single maximum selling price («equalization»). Prices for 16 SKUs will be reduced due to lower registered prices in the reference countries. Considering the contracts executed in 20192020, the budget of the high-cost program is up to 74.430 billion rubles, and after re-registration it will be equal to 64.162 billion rubles, so the savings will amount 10.267 billion (13.8 %). The main drivers of re-registration prices savings are: Advagraf (1.175 billion rubles), Elizaria (2.083 billion rubles) and Revlimid (2.247 billion rubles). Separately, we analyzed the consequences ofprices re-registration in the V-thgroup ofhigh-cost list, which are provided topatients with malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, hematopoietic and related tissues. It was calculated, that in 2019 the contracts for V-th group of high-cost list were signed for 19.217 billion rubles, and after the price re-registration for the purchase of the same number of drugs 16.762 billion rubles will be spent, so the savings from the price re-registration will amount to 2.455 billion rubles (12.8 %), among which 2.247 billion rubles will be provided by price re-registration of Revlimid.Conclusions. The pricing policy implemented in the Russian Federation is aimed at increasing the availability of highly effective medical care to the population of the Russian Federation and significantly reduces the burden on the budget of the healthcare system.

Genetic analysis of the Hungarian population of endangered Hucul horses

The population genetic evaluation of the Hungarian Hucul horse population was performed based on pedigree records. Herd book data of registered Hucul horses available up to 2016 were analysed using ENDOG (Gutierrez and Goyache 2005) and POPREP (Groeneveld et al. 2009) on the whole population (WP) as well as on the reference stock (RS) (breeding stock registered in 2016). Inbreeding coefficients were 5.57% (WP) and 7.18% (RS). Average relatedness was 10.39% in WP and higher in RS (12.67%). Effective population size was 52.32. Generation interval was 13.01 years for WP and 10.99 years for RS. The values for equivalent complete generations were 6.07 and 8.75, for the maximum number of generations 14.11 and 19.16, and for the number of full generations traced 3.77 and 5.50 for WP and RS, respectively. The effective number of founders (f_e) was 23 both for WP and RS. The effective number of ancestors (f_a) was 20 in WP and lower in RS (16). The f_a/f_e ratio was 0.869 in WP and 0.696 in RS. Founder genome equivalent (f_g) was 9.618 in WP and 5.790 in RS. The f_g/f_e ratio was 0.481 in WP and 0.361 in RS. The study revealed that both the inbreeding coefficient and the average relatedness were high. The above mentioned ratios indicated loss of genetic diversity in the Hungarian Hucul population.

Why Is Recruitment of the American Eel, Anguilla rostrata, Declining in the St. Lawrence River and Gulf?

We critically review four potential causes of a drastic decline in juvenile American eels, Anguilla rostrata, recruiting to Lake Ontario (81-fold decline from 1985 to 1992) and in juvenile eel densities in tributaries to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Silver eels from the St. Lawrence River were much more contaminated and had a high prevalence of deformities and lesions than a reference stock although they were on average less contaminated in 1990 than in 1982 (1.12 versus 4.54 μgg−1 for PCB; 0.025 versus 0.07 μg∙g−1 for mirex). Lethal toxicity from chemical contamination has been known to occur in St. Lawrence River eels for the past 25–30 yr. Major habitat modifications in the St. Lawrence took place in the 1950's (St. Lawrence Seaway and hydroelectric dams), about 30 yr before recruitment started declining; this long delay argues against these perturbations being primary causes of the decline. There is little evidence that commercial fishing and oceanographic changes caused the decline. Overall, we conclude that we do not know what caused the pronounced recruitment decline. We propose research avenues and hypotheses that may advance understanding and emphasize that because of panmixia, the recruitment decline could be species wide.

VARIATION IN AMYLASE HAPLOTYPES AMONG CONGENIC LINES OF THE HOUSE MOUSE

ABSTRACT Pancreatic amylase in the mouse displays considerable quantitative genetic variation. Agar gel electrophoresis reveals that homozygous animals have either one form of the enzyme, type A, or two forms, type AB. Only few animals have been found that contradict this statement, namely among Mus musculus castaneus from Thailand, which has a single-banded B type. Double-banded homozygous specimens of various origins have different relative proportions of the two isoenzymes. By measuring the A:B ratios in such animals, a number of distinct haplotypes or amylase complexes, determining ratios ranging from 61% A:39% B to 12% A:88% B, have been recognized. These complexes differ also with respect to the total amount of amylase produced. If the reference stock C3H/As is given the value 1, then other haplotypes have values ranging from 1.0 to 0.27. Nineteen amylase haplotypes have been established in congenic lines on a C3H/As background. Some of these lines contain at least four active pancreatic amylase structural genes and breeding experiments have demonstrated that the genetic elements regulating total amylase production and relative proportions of the isoenzymes are located within the amylase complex, cis-acting, and very closely linked to the structural genes.