The FINANCIAL — AstraZeneca on October 20 announced the opening of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing and packaging facility in Kaluga, Russia, dedicated to the local supply of innovative medicines.
In 2011 AstraZeneca was one of the first multinational pharmaceutical companies to announce plans to invest in the construction of a dedicated manufacturing facility in Russia. Four years on, the Company has invested $224m in the development, which is the largest foreign investment in the construction of a new pharmaceutical facility in the country, according to AstraZeneca.
Commenting from Russia on the opening of the Kaluga facility, Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, said: “Our new dedicated production facility will support our efforts to bring innovative medicines from our exciting pipeline to patients in Russia. This opening builds on our investments in clinical research and scientific collaborations in this important country and serves to reinforce our long term commitment to Russia.”
Commercial production will begin early next year and will focus on final-stage manufacturing, packaging and quality control. The site will become fully operational in 2017 and will produce around 40 million packs and 850 million tablets of some 30 innovative medicines every year. This represents more than 60% of AstraZeneca’s medicines marketed in Russia to treat diseases across the Company’s therapy areas.
The new facility adds to the expansion of AstraZeneca’s global manufacturing capabilities to support the company’s expanding portfolio of medicines and growing demand, following on from the planned biologics manufacturing investments in Sweden (announced in May 2015), the acquisition of a new site in Boulder, Colorado, US (announced in September 2015) and the expansion in Frederick, Maryland, US (announced in November 2014).
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