AstraZeneca

AZ establishes predictive science centre in Russia

pharmafile | June 17, 2011 | News story | Research and Development AstraZeneca, Russia, predictive science 

AstraZeneca is moving further into Russia with the establishment in St. Petersburg of a facility which aims to better assess how successful potential medicines might be.

Due to be set up in the next 12 months, the predictive science centre will employ 30 people developing new bioinformatics, data analysis methods, software and systems to help this work.

Staff are likely to come via collaborations with local companies as part of an agreement with the St. Petersburg government.

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca began construction of a $150 million pharma manufacturing facility in the Kaluga region and the company has set up several partnerships with Russian development institutes.

“Russia is a dynamic economy where our growing investments will help us to offer to patients AstraZeneca’s portfolio of innovative medicines,” said chief executive David Brennan.

The group has had a presence in Russia since 1993 and will put around $1.2 billion over the next five years into the country’s economy.

“We are pleased to contribute to the development of an innovative healthcare sector through our local research and manufacturing capabilities, established operations, and scientific and educational collaborations,” Brennan added.

AstraZeneca achieved sales of more than $200 million in Russia last year, part of a ‘land grab’ by multinational pharma companies that has gathered pace recently, pumping millions of dollars into the country.

In January, Novartis announced a $500 million investment in a St. Petersburg manufacturing plant, while Novo Nordisk unveiled a $100 million insulin-producing plant in the country.

Meanwhile Sanofi-Aventis has bought a controlling take in another insulin plant and Nycomed’s Russian plans include building a $90 million liquid sterile and solid oral dosage form facility.

Joint ventures include GlaxoSmithKline’s link up with local firm JSC Binnopharm for the domestic manufacture of GSK vaccine products in Russia.

This interest is understandable: local plants are a means of increasing the share of a pharma market valued at $18.5 billion by one analyst in 2009 – although growth slowed last year in the teeth of the global recession.

But perhaps more importantly are Russia’s plans to boost domestic production of pharmaceuticals to around 50% of demand – and reduce the country’s reliance on imports from its current level of around 81%. These would give preference to domestically-made medicines over imports in the national reimbursement system.

Adam Hill

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