Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Viktor Kharitonin, CEO of Pharmstandard, signed an agreement at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to build a high-tech pharmaceutical complex in the Alabushevo site of the Technopolis Moscow special economic zone.
Total investment, including equipment purchases, will exceed 13 billion roubles ($140 million). The facility is expected to open in 2029, the mayor’s and government press service said.
The 53,000-square-metre plant will produce modern live vaccines against rotavirus, chickenpox, measles, rubella and mumps.
Russia currently produces no vaccines for chickenpox or rotavirus, making the project strategically important for the country’s technological sovereignty.
The new plant is expected to create more than 200 jobs. It will become part of the pharmaceutical cluster of the Technopolis Moscow SEZ, which already includes 14 companies.
Ten of those firms already produce drugs for cancer, autoimmune, cardiovascular and other diseases. Between 2026 and 2028, the cluster plans to start manufacturing medicines for genetic and rare (orphan) diseases.
The project aligns with the goals of the national “New Health Saving Technologies” initiative, the Moscow city administration said, adding that it would strengthen Russia’s technological sovereignty in the production of complex biotech products.
Only one foreign rotavirus vaccine is currently registered in Russia – made by India’s Serum Institute of India. Only one imported chickenpox vaccine, GSK’s Varilrix from Britain, is supplied to the Russian market, Nikolai Bespalov, development director at RNC Pharma, said earlier.
Domestic alternatives are under development. The Gamaleya Centre is conducting clinical trials of a Russian rotavirus vaccine, while Nanolek and South Korea’s GC Biopharma are testing a chickenpox vaccine.
A vaccine for measles, rubella and mumps is already part of the national immunisation schedule. Russian rotavirus and chickenpox vaccines are expected to be added in 2029 and 2031, respectively.