Russian full‑cycle biopharmaceutical company PSK Pharma will build a research and development centre for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) using chemical synthesis in the Dubna special economic zone in the Moscow region. The complex will cover about 5,000 square metres, with planned investment of 1.5 billion roubles. The company has already filed a building application and begun selecting equipment and suppliers, its press service told GxP News.
The centre will house research laboratories with analytical equipment, facilities for multi‑stage chemical synthesis, purification and finishing areas for substances, and quality control laboratories. About 100 new jobs are expected to be created in Dubna when the centre becomes operational.
The centre will help reduce the domestic pharmaceutical industry’s dependence on imports, said PSK Pharma chief executive Yevgenia Shapiro. Scaling up API localisation will improve access to drugs in socially important areas such as pulmonology, infectious diseases and HIV, cardiology and neurology.
More than 40 biomedical and medical technology companies are located in the Dubna SEZ, including about 15 large pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing facilities. The enterprises are focused on import substitution and produce essential medicines for cancer, diabetes and asthma, as well as medical consumables.
The cluster continues to expand. Earlier this year, the Advance Group, founded by Indian businessman Rajesh Sharma, announced it would build a pharmaceutical plant in the Dubna SEZ worth more than 2.5 billion roubles. In April, the Moscow region and Kazakhstan also announced the construction of a Navipharm plant in the Dubna SEZ, with investment of 2 billion roubles.