On February 12, the Russian propaganda media outlets Russia Today (1,2) and RIA Novosti (1,2) spread information about the testing of “dangerous” drugs in Mariupol “in the interests of Western companies.” According to RIA Novosti, the drugs were tested on patients of a psychiatric hospital, which is confirmed by the documents obtained. The RIA Novosti report, published in the Telegram channel, also claimed that clinical trials were conducted on newborns too. Based on these two media outlets, the same information was published by other Russian media (1,2,3,4,5), including Российская газета, Регнум, and Украина.ру.
On February 13, the Georgian-language Facebook group Antilab-Georgia published a video about the testing of dangerous drugs on patients at the Mariupol psychiatric hospital. The day before, on February 12, Russian propagandist and war correspondent Yuri Kotyonok posted this video on his Telegram account. Kotyonok claimed that Slavs’ “biomaterial” had been collected in Mariupol and then sent to the West for years.
The documents disseminated by the Russian media outlets do not contain any evidence that dangerous and secret clinical trials were conducted on the Ukrainian population, patients of psychiatric hospital, or newborns. Information about several clinical trials identified from the documents shown in the report is available in open sources, while the drugs tested in these clinical trials were successfully approved upon their completion. It should be noted that the clinical trials were conducted in different countries, including Russia. The Kremlin propaganda media regularly use routine clinical trials conducted in Ukraine to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Various documents are seen in the reports circulated, from which some information can be discerned. Verification of this information shows that the documents refer to routine clinical and scientific research, the information about which is readily available and has never been classified.
For example, the Russia Today report shows a box labelled -G31-RA “Samsung Bioepis, Ltd”.
The same code can be seen on the binder in the RIA Novosti report too.
It can also be discerned in the document shown in Kotyonok’s video.
Samsung Bioepis is a biopharmaceutical company that is part of the Korean conglomerate Samsung Group. From the document shown in Kotyonok’s video, the clinical trial number, 2012-005026-30, assigned by the European Union Drug Regulating Authorities Clinical Trials Database (EudraCT) can also be discerned. The corresponding trial can be found in the Clinical Trials Database. The website provides detailed information about the trial, which shows that SB4-G31-RA is the sponsor’s protocol code number assigned to the trial and not a secret title. The website also states that the objective of the clinical trial is to compare the efficacy and safety of Samsung Bioepis’ drug SB4 with the drug Enbrel in patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis despite methotrexate therapy.
According to the information in the EudraCT, it is also clear that the clinical trial was conducted not only in Ukraine but also in the other seven countries: Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, South Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Information about the results of the trial is also available on the ЕU Clinical Trial Register’s website. There, data such as the total number of trial participants as well as a breakdown of participants by countries are presented. As can be seen, the largest number of participants involved in the trial were from Poland. It also shows that 515 people between the ages of 18 and 64 and 81 people over the age of 64 participated in the clinical trial.
An article about this clinical trial was published in the medical journal “Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases” in 2017. Already from the title of the article it is clear that it discusses the final, third phase of the drug trial. That the article is about the clinical trial mentioned above is evidenced by the reference number 2012-005026-30 assigned to the trial by EudraCT, which is indicated in the article. The article also cites the reference number NCT01895309 assigned to this trial by the US clinical trials database, ClinicalTrials.gov, which also provides information about this clinical trial. The SB4 drug, under the trade name Eticovo, indicated in the said study, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2019.
The RIA Novosti article reads: “From the results of the initial inspection of the documents, it is evident that the drugs were tested on humans under numbers, without names. The drugs were in white envelopes, also without names, under the number GLPG0634-CL-203.”
A similar code with a different last digit, GLPG0634-CL-204, can also be seen in one of the shots of the RIA Novosti report.
Both numbers are the protocol codes of the sponsor of the clinical trials, the Galapagos N.V. company, and both trials can be found on the EudraCT under these numbers. Both of them are Phase II trials. The GLPG0634-CL-203 trial studied the efficacy of GLPG0634 administered in combination with methotrexate in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis who have an inadequate response to methotrexate alone, while the GLPG0634-CL-204 studied the efficacy of GLPG0634 compared to placebo. It should be noted that the RIA Novosti material also mentioned that the drugs were related to rheumatoid arthritis.
The RIA Novosti article gives an impression that secret, unnamed, “numbered” drugs were tested on Ukrainian citizens, but it should be noted that both of these clinical trials were conducted in 21 countries, including the Russian Federation.
Of the 287 people who participated in the GLPG0634-CL-204 trial, 245 were between 18 and 64 years of age, and 42 were between 65 and 84 years of age. Of the 599 people in the GLPG0634-CL-203 trial, 499 were between the ages of 18 and 64, and 100 were between the ages of 65 and 84. The active substance in the drug is filgotinib.
Galapagos N.V produces this drug under the trade name Jyseleca, and it is approved for use in the EU and Japan. Thus, the “unnamed” drug, which, according to RIA Novosti, was tested on Ukrainians and is dangerous, is a currently approved medication. It should be noted that the clinical trial was completed in 2015, and it is unlikely that, amid the ongoing war, the Russian side found the remaining drugs from this trial in white envelopes.
One of the shots in the RIA Novosti report shows a document bearing the identification number CXA 30009 and the name of the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. It can also be seen that this document is related to an investigator (i.e., researcher) meeting (in clinical trials, “investigator” means an individual who actually conducts trials), as well as the date – August 4, 2005, and the location – a hotel in Kyiv.
The trial under the reference code CXA 30009 can also be found on EudraCT. Additional information on the results of this trial is also available. This was the Phase III trial. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of the drug GW406381 compared to placebo in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, while the secondary objectives were to evaluate the safety and tolerability of the drug as well as the optimal dose. The average age of trial participants was 51.5-53.6 years. The trial was conducted in 31 countries. The trial summaries state that the primary objective for this study was not met, and the efficacy of the drug compared to placebo could not be evaluated. It also says that side effects included only headache, hypertension, and nasopharyngitis, and these side effects only occurred in 4% of the participants.
The video posted by Kotyonok shows yet another document with the trial number RDEA594-203, which can also be found on EudraCT.
The abovementioned trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of the drug RDEA594 and its potential interaction with another drug, allopurinol, in gout patients with an inadequate response to standard doses of allopurinol. The clinical trial was conducted in seven countries: Canada, Georgia, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
The clinical trial was completed in 2016, but before that, while it was underway, the drug’s manufacturer, Ardea Biosciences, actively disseminated information about the results of the trial. (Ardea Biosciences was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2012). The US Food and Drug Administration even approved RDEA594 under the name Zirampic in 2015. This medication is used to lower uric acid levels in the blood of patients with gout.
Thus, none of the clinical trials prove that they were conducted using dangerous drugs on psychiatric patients or newborns. Information on the trials is available from open, reliable sources. These trials were conducted not only in Ukraine but also in different countries around the world. Ukraine has the resources to conduct clinical trials at a high-quality level. Ukrainian scientists are interested in participating in international research and having access to new treatment methods. In addition, according to the US publication Wired, which covers technology and science, the health care system of Ukraine has been underfunded for many years, and therefore, participation in clinical trials has become an alternative and faster way for some patients to receive treatment. The publication also notes that, due to problems in the health care system, many patients have not received any treatment, which makes them the best candidates for testing new methods of treatment on them. The war has significantly disrupted medical and research activities in Ukraine in this regard, and the country is making efforts to continue various clinical trials as much as possible.
Russia regularly uses routine studies and, generally, medical activities in Ukraine’s scientific and medical fields to spread disinformation. Last year, disinformation spread that dangerous anti-COVID-19 drugs were tested in Ukraine. Read the details in the Myth Detector’s article:
Kotyonok’s Telegram message emphasizes the collection of “Slavic biomaterial,” which, according to him, was used to “create new types of biological weapons” and spread them in the form of epidemics and pandemics against Slavs in Eurasia. This somewhat repeats conspiracy theories about the creation of biological weapons that can be directed against a particular ethnic group. In reality, it is technologically impossible to create such weapons. Disinformation on this topic was disseminated in 2022, claiming that Ukrainians had created bio-agents capable of selectively infecting Slavs.
About the source:
The Georgian-language Facebook group where the video was distributed:
The Facebook group Antilab-Georgia is associated with the organization Antilab. This organization opposes “American biolabs” and biological weapons and spreads various conspiracy theories and disinformation about this topic. Antilab-Georgia’s posts are mainly shared by one user, the administrator of the group Lado Qartvelishvili. Myth Detector has checked disinformation spread by Qartvelishvili in this group earlier too.
Archive links: Russia Today, РИА Новости, Российской газета, Регнум, Украина.ру, ZOV Херсон, БЕZФормата, Вести, Знамя Труда, Molsport
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