The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation has started searching for a contractor for the construction of a full-cycle Research and Production Complex for the creation of somatic cell based medicine, The facility, which will be operated by the Federal State Budgetary Institution National Medical Research Center for Hematology (NMRC for Hematology), must be built before the beginning of October 2028. It is planned to allocate more than 748.3 million rubles from the federal budget for these purposes, according to the Unified Information System.
The research and production complex will be built in Novy Zykovsky Proezd in Moscow. The area of the four-storey building with an underground floor will be 3,273,000 square meters. The funds invested in the project will amount to 133.1 million rubles, 573.9 million rubles, and 41.163 million rubles in 2025, 2026 and 2027, respectively.
The plans for a new building first emerged in 2024. At that time, it was planned that the production of CAR-T drugs would begin in 2026. Representatives of the center noted that the project was developed to ensure a full-cycle production of somatic cell based medicine, including quality control and research, as well as a sequence of technological processes.
In 2024, it was reported that the National Research Institute for Hematology received the country’s first license from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation for the manufacture of innovative CAR-T cell drugs. This marked the beginning of registrational clinical trials of a drug developed by the center aimed at combating B-cell neoplasms with CD19 antigen on the surface.
Upon successful completion of the trials, which is expected by the end of this year, it is planned to register the drug and establish its production not only for the needs of the National Research Institute of Hematology, but also for other medical institutions. It was also reported that to meet the demand of patients for CAR-T cellular preparations, a new building will be erected at the NMRC for Hematology, with a capacity of up to 600 cellular products per year.
