AstraZeneca Commissions Its Production Facility in Kaluga Region
An official opening ceremony of a new hi-tech production facility of AstraZeneca, a biopharmaceutical major, took place in Vorsino industrial park, Kaluga Region, on October 20, 2015. The ceremony was attended by Sergey Tsyb, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Artamonov, Governor of the Russian Federation, Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer, Gennady Pyatsky, Director, Production, AstraZeneca Russia, Sir Tim Barrow, Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Peter Eriksson, Ambassador of Sweden to the Russian Federation.
AstraZeneca has invested US$ 224 million in this project. The investments has been made not only in the production facility construction, but also in R&D, continuous medical education, patient support and corporate citizenship programs. First commercial batches are to be produced at the new plant in Q1 2016. Full cycle production is to begin in 2017. The facility is to produce about 40 million of packages and 850 million of tablets per annum.
The plant is to manufacture approximately 30 AstraZeneca innovative medicines applied in such areas as oncology, cardiology, gastroenterology, psychiatry and pulmonology. These medicines represent about 80% of the entire AstraZeneca portfolio in Russia. About 170 employees are to work at the plant in 2016.
Pascal Soriot: “The construction of the new plant confirms the fact that AstraZeneca pursues a long-term development strategy in Russia. The project is one of the largest investment projects in the Russian pharmaceutical industry.
Anatoly Artamonov in his turn pointed out that the new plant was to ensure better availability of innovative medicines for Russian patients. He said: “Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster consists of over 50 companies including global majors implementing anchor investment projects, like Novo Nordisk OOO, Hemopharm OOO, NIARMEDIK PLUS OOO, Berlin Chemie ZAO, AstraZeneca Industries OOO, Sferapharm OOO, etc., and innovative SMEs. By the end of 2018 Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster may become the third largest producer of medicines in Russia”.
Sergey Tsyb: “Implementation of an investment project of such a scale will help attain global objectives set by the Russian government. AstraZeneca investment policy helps the Russian Federation Government implement its strategy in the field of the pharmaceutical industry development till 2020. One of the strategy goals is to increase the share of medicines produced in Russia”.
Peter Eriksson: “The production facility commissioning is a good example of successful development for other international companies. Kaluga Region constantly demonstrates the high level of business relations while attracting investments to its territory”.
Tim Barrow: “Implementation of such a large scale project provides new economic and social development opportunities in the Russian market, including opportunities for private and public sectors cooperation”.
On the same day AstraZeneca hosted the first oncology summit of BRICS and Eurasia countries dedicated to availability of innovative solutions for malignant neoplasms’ diagnostics and treatment. Over 20 experts, heads and leading specialists from oncology societies, attended the event. The summit was organized by the Russian Society for Clinical Oncology (RUSSCO).
Note:
AstraZeneca is a global innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company. Its key goals are to discover, develop and market prescription medicines, primarily, for the following areas: cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neurological, autoimmune, respiratory and inflammation diseases. The company operates in more than 100 countries of the world. Millions of patients use its innovative drugs.
For the first time AstraZeneca announced its intention to build a production facility in Russia back in February 2011. In April 2011 the groundbreaking ceremony was held. AstraZeneca became the first big pharma company to build an entirely new pharmaceutical full cycle production facility in Russia.
On Kaluga Pharmaceutical Cluster:
Kaluga Region has a truly unique experience in establishing a pharmaceutical cluster. According to the results of a contest held by the Ministry for Economic Development of the Russian Federation in 2012 the cluster was included in the list of 14 pilot innovative territorial clusters. Experts believed that the key advantage of Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster was the availability of well-balanced cluster elements: facilities capable of producing finished dosage forms, research and development of original pharmaceutical substances and active molecules, training facilities for pharmaceutical industry professionals as well as a formalized cluster management system.
The key objective of Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster is to establish science-intensive production facilities to substitute imported products. The development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical substances, as well as clinical and pre-clinical trials are among the main strategic areas of business of the cluster.
