News Digest 12.08.2024 — 14.08.2024
Regulators
Pharmaceutical literature excluded from drug propaganda law
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 224-FZ of 08.08.2024 "On Amendments to Articles 1 and 46 of the Federal Law "On Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances" and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation", the document was published on the legal information portal.
According to the document, drug propaganda does not include medical and pharmaceutical publications that contain information about narcotic and psychotropic substances approved for use for medical purposes.
In addition, the provisions on propaganda do not apply to works of literature and art, scientific and educational publications, as well as to materials of operational investigative activities.
The document comes into force on September 1, 2025.
Market news
The court is again considering the case of fraud with the supply of medical equipment to the Ministry of Defense to combat COVID-19
The Basmanny District Court of Moscow has begun a new trial of the criminal case on the theft of almost 400 million rubles during the purchase of medical equipment by the Russian Ministry of Defense to combat coronavirus infection during the pandemic. The defendants are the former deputy director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Main Military Construction Directorate No. 4" affiliated with the department, Larisa Leontyeva, as well as the designer and fashion designer Ferutdin Zakirov. According to the case materials, his company was supposed to supply ventilators, but instead the Ministry of Defense received devices to improve the quality of sleep at an inflated price. The case was returned to the prosecutor's office to correct the deficiencies, but the supervisory authority appealed the decision.
The trial on the criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale) started for the third time. During the preliminary hearing, the defendants' defense filed a number of motions, including a demand to return the case materials to correct errors and violations of the law. The state prosecution took a break to formulate its position.
Presumably, at the next hearing, they will begin to consider the issue of further preventive measures for Leontyeva and Zakirov, who were already in a pre-trial detention center and under house arrest. Currently, they have been banned from certain actions. The defendants do not admit guilt. Zakirov believes that he acted in good faith in the supply of medical equipment, so he expects to be acquitted.
Initially, the case of Leontyeva and Zakirov was sent for consideration to the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow. In December 2022, its jurisdiction was changed, and the materials were transferred to the Basmanny Court. The second trial lasted almost a year, after which the judge decided to return the case to the Prosecutor General's Office, satisfying the defense's motion.
In their appeal, the lawyers named among the problems discrepancies in the amount of damages in various documents involved in the case, as well as the lack of confirmation of the selfish motives that the defendants allegedly followed, the lack of translations of a number of foreign documents, and other details. The prosecutor's office noted that the identified shortcomings were insignificant. The appellate court upheld the decision of the Basmanny Court, but the cassation court agreed with the supervisory authority and returned the case to the Basmanny District Court for consideration by another judge.
The investigation into the case began on September 17, 2020. The Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated it based on materials from the FSB military counterintelligence. According to the investigation, in the spring of 2020, as Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu instructed the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Property Management of Special Projects" (UISP) to purchase medical equipment and personal protective equipment for the needs of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
The equipment was to be delivered to 16 quickly erected multifunctional medical centers, they were intended to be equipped with ventilators and other equipment. According to the investigation, Larisa Leontyeva was to provide assistance to the head of UISP Andrei Tulupov in the prompt search for suppliers of medical equipment and concluding contracts with them.
The case indicates that the situation was allegedly complicated by sanctions and restrictions on business transactions established in various countries in connection with the pandemic. As a result, the deputy head of the FSUE contacted designer Ferutdin Zakirov through mutual acquaintances. According to the Investigative Committee, he promised through his connections to help with the supply of ventilators, including the Chinese Yuwell YH-730. As a result, in the spring of 2020, the Russian Defense Ministry received 350 devices for 400 million rubles. According to the FSB and the Investigative Committee, instead of the necessary ventilators, the customer was supplied with devices to improve the quality of sleep of patients suffering from sleep apnea syndrome (breathing disorder during sleep), at a price 10 times inflated. Larisa Leontyeva and Ferutdin Zakirova were arrested and charged with large-scale fraud. The defendants denied guilt, insisting that the information about the purchases was checked and approved by specialists and heads of medical units of the Defense Ministry, and that they themselves were only conscientiously fulfilling their duties. According to the defendants, who are in the case before The documents refute the fact of price gouging. They also do not understand how the amount of damage can be equal to the entire contract amount, as if there were no deliveries at all, although a special transport "board" of the Ministry of Defense flew to China to pick up the devices. Andrei Tulupov was accused of abuse of office (Part 1 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He pleaded guilty not only to this, but also to accepting bribes (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in other episodes of the military department's purchase of medical supplies to combat coronavirus infection. As a result, his case was separated into a separate proceeding. In January 2023, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced Tulupov to 8 years in a maximum security penal colony.
Other
ETU "LETI" taught a neural network to identify Parkinson's disease based on a drawing
An AI-based program that identifies cognitive impairments was developed at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI". For express diagnostics, it is enough to provide a photograph of a spiral drawn by the patient, the university's website reports. Specialists use a fairly simple test to determine cognitive impairments in humans, including Parkinson's disease. They ask the patient to connect dots in the form of a spiral on a piece of paper. The doctor evaluates the resulting drawing visually and interprets the test results based on his own experience. Certain deviations from the correct lines indicate problems in the brain. To obtain a more objective conclusion, the authors of the project at LETI trained a neural network using a special algorithm to analyze drawings and recognize signs of the disease. Parkinson's disease is a serious problem for humans. According to open sources, there are about 10 million people with this diagnosis in the world today. It can manifest itself already at the age of 30 to 50 years. The appearance of symptoms such as slowness of movement, tremor, apathy, and a change in the timbre of the voice may indicate the disease. But it is almost impossible to diagnose this disease before the symptoms appear, although early diagnosis can slow down the development of the disease. The program developed at LETI allows you to find signs of cognitive impairment based on a photograph of a spiral drawn by a patient. For this, the neural network was trained on the open HandPD database. The algorithm was developed based on 368 images of a spiral obtained from two groups of people: healthy people and people diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. According to the developers of the program, testing has shown that the neural network establishes the probability of the disease with an accuracy of 99.3%, and its sensitivity is 99.2%. According to the developer, in the future, the created algorithm can become the basis for a program to support the doctor's decision-making, and will also be of interest to doctors who specialize in diagnosing Parkinson's disease. Perhaps this product will also be useful for patients to monitor their condition. The developed algorithm is registered as a computer program. In Kazan, scientists have developed a service based on artificial intelligence that can determine the signs of Parkinson's disease by voice. And at Petrozavodsk State University, a neural network was taught to diagnose this disease with an accuracy of 99.9% by analyzing an electroencephalogram.
Source: https://pharmmedprom.ru/news/v-leti-nauchili-neiroset-opredelyat-bolezn-parkinsona-po-risunku/
Take in cyber hands: a new generation of sensory prosthesis has been created in the Russian Federation
Russian scientists have modernized prostheses that allow patients to regain the ability to touch and can relieve them of phantom pain. At the new stage of the study, it was possible to achieve that it became possible to move the cyber limb freely, without fixation. The device is controlled through a special interface and allows you to receive sensory feedback in the form of electrical stimulation, which causes sensations in the lost limb. The artificial hand also allows you to distinguish between hard and soft objects, as well as their size and texture. Experts believe that the development can significantly improve the quality of life of people who have undergone amputation.
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