Volozhin Region
Executive Committee

Belarus is carrying out international research on Elenagen, a plasmid (supercoiled circular DNA) encoding gene, the DNA vaccine to treat cancer, Director of the Alexandrov National Cancer Center, Doctor of Medicine Sergei Polyakov said, BelTA has learned.

“Belarus is carrying out international clinical trials of Elenagen, a DNA vaccine that is meant to enhance the effect of chemotherapy in treating late-stage cancer resistant to standard treatment modalities,” Sergei Polyakov said.

In his words, Belarusian cancer specialists have studied the most promising immune therapies around the world and chose the Elenagen DNA vaccine. “They assessed hundreds of potential anti-tumor drugs using the following criteria: a high degree of safety, ability to enhance the effect of chemotherapy, economic feasibility and accessibility of the future product and its novelty. The DNA vaccine meets all these criteria,” the director of the research center said.

Preclinical testing has revealed that the drug can reduce/revert the tumor grade. Extensive safety research has been conducted. The administration of the vaccine has not resulted in any substantial side effects. The extended phase I clinical trials showed that even if used alone, Elenagen halted the progression of cancer pathogenesis for more than two months in patients who have exhausted all standard treatment options. It is expected that Elenagen can enhance the effect of standard treatment modalities.

Professor Sergei Krasny, MD, PhD, DSc, Deputy Director of the Alexandrov National Cancer Center, Belarusian doctors developed a research protocol that got a peer review of leading cancer centers – New York University and MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA). The study was unanimously approved by the Belarus Healthcare Ministry.

Elenagen was developed by CureLab Oncology, Inc., a Boston-based biotech startup which provided the product to Belarusian counterparts. According to Dr. Alex Shneider, CEO of CureLab Oncology, there were plans to start Phase II clinical trials of Elenagen in the USA and many other countries. However, after studying the research protocol presented by Belarusian scientists and after assessing Belarus' cancer research capacities and competencies, a decision was made to start trials in Belarus, with other leading cancer centers joining later.

The project to study the effects of Elenagen was launched by the Alexandrov National Cancer Center and Minsk City Cancer Center in April 2020.

Inoperable late-stage cancer patients with triple-negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer, stomach cancer and pancreas cancer are randomized and subsequently receive either standard chemotherapy or chemotherapy combined with Elenagen. For each disease, the experimental and control groups are compared using a number of parameters. One can also expect a reversal of a tumor grade to an operable stage, which would make the tumor surgically removable.

The number of observers at polling stations during the current election campaign will be reduced due to the epidemiological situation.

Such a decision was adopted at a meeting of the Belarusian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on 22 July, BelTA has learned.

CEC head Lidia Yermoshina proposed to reduce the number of observers to five on the main voting day, and to three during the early voting time. “The matter is about presence. The accreditation of observers does not stop,” she said.

She recalled that the Healthcare Ministry has developed recommendations to prevent the spread of respiratory infections (including COVID-19) during the presidential election. The recommendations include social distancing at a polling stations. Charis and tables of the precinct commission members, places for observers should be at least one meter apart.

The changes do not apply to international observers, proxies of presidential candidates, members of the House of Representatives and members of the Council of the Republic, members of local councils who can observe the election in accordance with their status, and also registered media. Journalists will be able to visit polling stations.

As of 21 July, the CEC accredited 29 international observers from the CIS Executive Committee.

BelTA reported earlier that the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus scheduled the presidential election for 9 August. According to the timetable, early voting is scheduled for 4-8 August. The Central Election Commission is supposed to sum up results of the election on 19 August at the latest. If the second round of the election is necessary, it will take place within two weeks of the first one, that is on 23 August.

The CIS observation mission will be led by Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee - Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev. His nomination was approved during a meeting of the CIS Council of Permanent Plenipotentiary Representatives in Minsk on 21 July, BelTA has learned.

The CIS is forming the mission. The CIS Executive Committee has sent out invitations to the CIS countries requesting to nominate their representatives to the CIS observation mission. CIS observers are expected to work in all regions of the country. On the election day, the observers will be present at the polling stations from the moment they open until the counting of votes is completed.

The mission will release its findings on the results of the monitoring of the election campaign in Belarus on 10 August.

The presidential election in Belarus will be held on 9 August. The Central Election Commission has registered five presidential candidates on 14 July.

As told in the Agriculture and Food Office of Minsk Oblast Executive Committee, as of the morning of July 21, the agrarians of Minsk Oblast threshed more than 121 thousand tons of rapeseed.

The yield was 21.9 kg/ha.

In total, rapeseed was harvested from 55 thousand hectares of areas - this is 62.5% of the plan. In general, this crop must be removed from 88.4 thousand hectares.

Also, work continues on the areas where winter barley is sown. As of July 21, 96.6% of this crop was harvested in the region. But grains and legumes (without corn, buckwheat, millet) in the region harvested 12.6 thousand hectares - 2.6% of the plan.

The Belarusian national air carrier Belavia will perform a one-time charter flight from Minsk to Tashkent and back on 28-29 July, BelTA learned from Belavia's Instagram account.

“Seeking ways to return citizens home amid the situation with the coronavirus Belavia will perform a flight from Minsk to Tashkent and back. The departure from Minsk is at 20:10 on 28 July. The departure from Tashkent is at 03.50 on 29 July (local time),” the company said.

Tickets are available on the website belavia.by, in the offices of the air company and agents.

The airline recommends checking with travel companies for issues related to self-isolation and quarantine.

There are many areas where Belarus and the United States can cooperate, where their interests coincide, Oleg Kravchenko, who has been appointed Ambassadress Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to the United States, told BelTA.

“The areas where our interests coincide, first of all, includes the cooperation in attracting financial resources, economic and energy dialogue, international security, law enforcement cooperation,” Oleg Kravchenko noted.

“The fact that we belong to various military and political blocs does not exclude, but rather necessitates developing contacts between the military,” the ambassador is convinced.

"Of course, we do not see eye to eye on everything. A dialogue on those issues where we diverge remains an important element of our bilateral relations,” the ambassador said.

“I would like to see our relations normalized and stable,” Ambassador Oleg Kravchenko noted.

According to the information of the economy committee of the regional executive committee, in the first half of the year, agricultural enterprises of the central region produced agricultural products in current prices in the amount of 1,760.4 million rubles, the growth rate in comparable prices to January-June 2019 amounted to 105.4 percent.

During the same period, 260.7 thousand tons of the main types of livestock and poultry were grown, which is 106.8 percent compared to last year. Livestock and poultry sold for slaughter in live weight of 247.1 thousand tons or 107.6 percent.

Agricultural organizations produced 963.700 tons of milk (109.5 percent), the average milk yield from a cow is 2875 kilograms, which is 225 kilograms more than in the first six months of 2019. 870.100 tons of milk were sold, or 90.3 percent of the production.

As of July 1, the number of cattle in agricultural organizations amounted to 958.700 heads (100.6 percent as of July 1, 2019), of which 332.6 thousand cows. The number of pigs and poultry has increased. Now there are 690.800 and 16.9 million heads, respectively. Compared to the level of six months of last year, these are 102.7 and 106.1 percent.

Belarus is interested in attracting more Egyptian tourists, Belarus' Sport and Tourism Minister Sergei Kovalchuk said as he met with Dr. Khaled Al-Anani, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt in Minsk on 17 July, BelTA has learned.

“Last year, 258,000 Belarusians visited Egypt. These are pretty large numbers. Now we need to move around this statistics and encourage more citizens of Egypt to come to Belarus. So far, we have welcomed a little more than a thousand Egyptians a year,” Sergei Kovalchuk said.

In his opinion, such a small flow is due to transport issues. “We do not have a direct regular flight with Egypt. So we need to address this issue. It would be good to have low-cost airlines flying on this route," the minister said.

Sergei Kovalchuk noted that the Belarusian hosts will try to show the Egyptian delegation all advantages of the country. “We are developing various types of tourism: industrial, medical, agro-ecotourism. The country has good health resorts, a large number of sports facilities, excellent infrastructure,” he added.

For his part, Dr. Khaled Al-Anani said that this was one of his first visits abroad after the pandemic. “Our main goal is to show that we are ready to welcome tourists," he said. “Those tourists who visited Egypt after the borders reopened returned absolutely healthy. Everyone who is visiting our country has a safe stay.”

Dr. Khaled Al-Anani noted, in particular, the interest of the Egyptian business in Belarus: various proposals are considered, tours are offered, negotiations are held. “We have taken our relations to the level of interstate ties. Tourism is the best way of communication between our citizens,” he concluded.

The Egyptian delegation headed by Minister of Antiquities and Tourism Dr. Khaled Al-Anani is on a two-day official visit to Belarus. The guests are set to visit the National Historical Museum, Minsk Tractor Works, the Cathedral Mosque and the Yunost health resort and take a tour of Minsk. The presentation of the tourism potential of Belarus and Egypt has been scheduled for 18 July.

Belarus' Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei met with outgoing U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Belarus Jenifer Moore on 17 July 2020, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The parties discussed topical issues of Belarus - U.S. relations. Vladimir Makei thanked Jenifer Moore for her contribution to the development of bilateral cooperation between Belarus and the United States and presented the U.S. diplomat with the Partnership Award of the diplomatic service of the Republic of Belarus.

455.500 units of personal protective equipment, including 300.000 medical masks, 133.000 respirators, 6.000 goggles, 6.000 protective face shields and 10.500 medical gowns, were transferred to healthcare institutions of Minsk Oblast, Belarus 1 reports

All delivered medical supplies were checked for compliance with international quality and safety standards, they are intended for medical workers who are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.