AstraZeneca to increase investments in Russian manufacturing plant

AstraZeneca will increase the investments in the construction of its  Russian drug manufacturing plant by $37 million up to $187 million, David Smith, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president for production recently revealed.

As part of the company’s plans, the new facility will be established in the Kaluga region and will specialize in the production of about 30 innovative drugs for the treatment of cardiology, oncology, psychiatric, gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. During the period of 2014 to 2016, the new plant will only specialize in the package of drugs, while starting from 2017 on their production.

Among the new innovative drugs, scheduled for the production in Kaluga, is the new blood thinning drug Brilinta/Brilique (ticagrelor), which is claimed to be  significantly more effective than clopidogrel, Sanofi’s now off patent  blockbuster Plavix.

The new plant is expected to reach its design capacity of about 500 million tablets per year by 2019. It is planned that by the time of the final phase of localization the plant will employ about 165 people.