Unified Public System Research Articles

Constitutional status of the Russian State Council in the mirror of actual constitutional reforms

The subject of research is social relations concerning the constitutional transformation of the State Council of the Russian Federation into the format of a constitutional state body, it’s tasks and functions in the unified system of public power. The aim of the research is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that the Russian State Council is a constitutional state body that ensures the coordinated functioning and interaction of authorities in the unified system of public power.The methodological basis of the research includes historical, comparative legal, formal legal methods, legal modeling and forecasting. The research is based on existing and historical legal acts, materials of judicial practice, as well as on the works of leading national lawyers.The main results, scope of application. The authors substantiate concept of the constitutional status of the Russian State Council as a completely new constitutional state body, formed on the basis of modern national principles of state building, taking into account the existing constitutional practice. Main task of the State Council is exercising the constitutional powers of the Russian President to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of public authorities, the definition of the main directions of national and foreign policy of the state. The article provides a critical analysis of the goals, tasks, functions of the Russian State Council, the decisions it makes, as a result of which a number of conflicts in the regulation of its constitutional-legal status are revealed. Some proposals to improve legislation and law enforcement practice aimed at solving of the discovered contradictions are made. Current constitutional of the State Council is a result of the constitutional amendments of 2020 in the Russian Constitution and innovations in the Federal Law on the State Council of the Russian Federation. The authors substantiate the idea that the consolidation of a new constitutional position of the State Council can be considered as a process of forming a completely new state body, designed to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of bodies included in the unified public system. A comparative legal analysis of the constitutional legislation on State Councils in foreign countries showed that despite the same name the status and functions of these state institutions differ greatly in different countries, therefore any comparative study of them will be unreliable.Conclusions. The Russian State Council has competence, functions of a state power character, take decisions signed by the President of the Russian Federation and therefore have a generally binding character. So it has the characteristics of a public authority. The Russian State Council is a new constitutional and legal structure - a constitutional state body created in order to implement the constitutional powers of the Russian President to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of other bodies (that are part of the unified system of public authority) and to determine the main directions of domestic and foreign policy of the state.

Home storage of biological medications administered to patients with rheumatic diseases

BackgroundThe inadequate storage of biopharmaceuticals may result in an ineffective therapeutic response since poor conservation can lead to the emergence of protein aggregates and cause immunogenicity in patients, which can increase the risk of adverse events by inducing the production of anti-drug antibodies. This can also lead to significant economic losses for public health, given the high cost of these medicines. The aim of this study was to verify whether the home storage of biopharmaceuticals dispensed by the Unified Public System was in accordance with the manufacturers’ specified standards and whether external variables interfered with the correct home storage.MethodsThis was a prospective observational study. Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis who were using a biologic exclusively dispensed by Unified Public System were included. Storage temperature was measured by digital thermometer inserted into the refrigerator of the participant’s home. Fisher’s exact test was performed to cross-reference the temperature data and the qualitative variables obtained using an epidemiologic questionnaire. Mean, minimum, maximum values and standard deviation were described in the quantitative data. Mann-Whitney non-parametric test was performed to the association between temperature excursion and the number of people in the house.ResultsA total of 81 participants were included and 67 (82.71%) did not maintain home storage correctly. The maximum temperature observed among all patients was 15.5 °C, the minimum was − 4.4 °C and the average was 5.6 °C (standard deviation 2.8); 10 (12.3%) had at least one negative temperature measured. The average time for participants who had an inadequate temperature record was 8 h and 31 min. Nine participants (90%) who stored the medication into the shelf/drawer below the freezer had a temperature excursion (p = 0.011). Most of the participants (88.5%) who stored their biopharmaceutical near the back side, close to the wall of the refrigerator had a negative temperature record (p < 0.001).ConclusionMost of the study participants (82.71%) did not maintain adequate home storage conditions for their biopharmaceutical. Intrinsic factors of household refrigerators may be involved in temperature deviations.