OREANDA-NEWS. June 14, 2011.  A ceremony to open the first stage of the antibiotics and anticancer medications plant was held in the Terbuny regional special economic zone of the Lipetsk region.

The project is being implemented by a specially established company CJSC Rafarma in cooperation with Vnesheconombank. It’s been one of the largest projects in the latest years in Russia’s pharmaceutical industry. In December of 2009, Vnesheconombank and CJSC Rafarma entered into credit agreements on extending funds in the total amount of 66 million euros for a period of 7 years to implement the project. This is a pilot project in the pharmaceutical sector for Vnesheconombank: the project’s financing was opened right after pharmaceutics was included in the list of Vnesheconombank’s investment activity sectoral priorities in late 2009.

Under the project a high-technology plant is to be built. The plant is to manufacture 58 item names of medications in line with GMP standards. The plant’s capacity is to amount up to 101 million antibiotics packages and 869 thousand anticancer medications packages per year. Due to the plant’s production facilities demand for some positions in 6 main consumer regions is expected to be met (Moscow, the Moscow region, the Krasnodar territory, Saint Petersburg, the Republic of Bashkortostan, the Republic of Tatarstan).

The opening of the first stage including the launch of the packaging and storage integrated facility’s production lines and the commissioning of the plant’s administrative and amenity block will make it possible to manufacture up to 92 million medications packages per year at the first stage .

The project’s implementation will make it possible to significantly reduce the proportion of imported medications in the Russian Federation, create a production facility to manufacture innovation medications and place contract production orders of the largest foreign and domestic pharmaceutical companies.

The project is being implemented with the assistance of the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry, the Russian Health and Social Development Ministry, the Lipetsk region Administration. It is in line with the basic pharmaceutical industry development strategy for a period of up to 2020.