Abbott has launched a pharmaceutical plant owned by Veropharm, Abbot’s fully-owned asset in the Vladimir region with a dedication ceremony on September 18, 2016. Investment in the project amounts to RUB7.4 billion (USD110 million).

The plant will put out more than 50 cancer drugs, including drugs used during and before chemotherapy, as well as antibiotics. Commercial production is to begin at the end of the current year. After the plant is brought to design capacity, it will make over 40 million sterile preparations (cytostatics and hormones) and more than 40 million nontoxic preparations per year. It will manufacture Veropharm’s medications. No contract production is being planned for the moment, Veropharm head Yelena Bushberg said at a press briefing devoted to the plant’s commissioning. The company is weighing plans to export products to be manufactured at the new production facility in the future. “We are planning to expand production and to export products,” Ms. Bushberg said.

She made a point that meeting the needs of the Russian market is the company’s priority goal. “We are aware that our capacities, even after expansion, do not meet the domestic demand in full. Therefore, it is our priority goal to try to meet the needs here in Russia as best as we can,” she said.

The new production facility has a floor space of over 19,000 square meters.

Veropharm is one of Russia’s largest producers of generics, cancer drugs, and plasters. It was formed in 1997 and currently owns three plants in Belgorod, in Voronezh, and in the Vladimir region, mostly manufacturing prescription generics.

Abbott acquired a controlling stake in Veropharm in December 2014 from co-owner of Credit Bank of Moscow Roman Avdeyev. The U.S. company subsequently consolidated a 100-percent stake in the Russian pharmaceutical company.