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Russia’s Kaluga region to produce cancer-fighting drugs

The plant in the Kaluga Special Economic Zone will produce a variety of 50 cancer-fighting drugs

KALUGA, December 19 /TASS/. Russia’s Mirax Pharma Company will build a plant for the production of cancer-fighting drugs in the Kaluga Special Economic Zone for 3 bln rubles ($48.5 mln) under an agreement of understanding sealed by the company and the government of the Kaluga region.

"The drugs, which we are developing, are intended to prevent oncological diseases and stop tumors from growing further at an early stage. According to our estimates, up to 20 million Russians can be our potential consumers. The plant is expected to produce up to 1 billion tablets a year," Mirax Pharma’s President Mikhail Paltsev said.

The fact that the company carries out its own R&D and clinical tests makes the project unique. The enterprise, which is to go into operation in 2019, will employ up to 500 people. 

Mirax Pharma’s CEO Dmitry Sidorin told TASS that the enterprise would produce a variety of 50 cancer-fighting drugs. Only eight of them will be used to treat women’s reproductive system and male diseases.

"The enterprise plans to launch the production of a wide range of pharmaceutical contents. The problem is that until recently all the components have been imported from abroad. Therefore, the plant in the Kaluga Special Economic Zone will operate to meet the goals of the national import substitution program," Sidorin added.

The enterprise will occupy 6.5 hectares on the territory of the Kaluga Special Economic Zone in the Borovsk region and will have the potential to expand further. Mirax Pharma has its own production facilities in the Moscow suburbian town of Khimki. But it produces very few ready-made elements. The Kaluga plant will deliver all its products to the Russian market and the markets of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). At the moment the components are supplied to the ‘near-abroad’ countries.

"The development of the Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster is our strategic mission. We are glad to see Russian producers who come to our plant to introduce the results of their scientific research," Anatoly Artamonov, the Kaluga regional governor noted. At present, the Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster has 60 enterprises.

Mirax Pharma, a Russian producer of medical drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients, was established in 2003. It used the scientific developments of the Molecular Medicine Research Institute of the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy as the basis for its research work.