Prescription drugs with nanotechnology. Americans to build a pharmaceutical plant in Kaluga
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28 May 2013
Yulia Kostina, Smart News
NovaMedica, a joint venture of Domain Associates and RusnanoMedInvest, will complement the pharmaceutical cluster in Kaluga region. A projected plant will be specializing in the manufacturing of therapeutics and medicines for kids. The plant’s capacity is 200 Mio tablets and 5 Mio ampules a year.
NovaMedica will be the third company present in the pharmaceutical cluster of the Kaluga region. It will be capable to manufacturing of 200 Mio tablets and 5 Mio ampules a year. According to the partners’ plan, $380 Mio will be jointly invested in the development, manufacturing and localization of pharmaceutical products and medical devices.
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Domain Associates — U.S. venture capital firm specializing in medical projects. RusnanoMedInvest (RMI) — RUSNANO subsidiary specializing in implementation of life sciences projects. Partners have signed an agreement on the establishment of a new pharmaceutical company in March 2012.
"Novamedica’s plant will be constructed under a joint agreement signed between OJSC “RUSNANO” and Domain Associates, a U.S. venture capital fund. Two projects are implemented as part of this partnership: RusnanoMedInvest and NovaMedica. First — investment and development, and NovaMedica — creation of a pharmaceutical company, because it is not only the plant but it is to encompass logistics, research, registration of drugs, i.e. the whole block."
Elena Pochesneva, PR Director, Team Drive
The leadership of a new company is counting on the development of drugs on the therapeutic market: gastroenterology, cardiology, CNS diseases, children’s and women’s health and ophthalmology. Drugs to be manufactured are considered to target sales via drugstore networks and covering the hospital market segment. Children’s therapeutics is a poorly covered market segment; therefore it is also considered an area of interest.
"This is a new pharmaceutical company. Its objective is a global market scouting, completion of developments and commercialization of innovative medical products in Russia, those in high demand but currently not present on the market. In addition to investment options in the U.S. venture market currently being investigated by RusnanoMedInvest, as part of the search for drugs to be incorporated in NovaMedica portfolio, we have already analyzed about 250 new drugs for possibilities addressing an unmet need, in-licensing, IP and commercialization in the Russian market. Eight memorandums of understanding have been signed and we are planning to make the Russian market happy about new and effective drugs addressing an unmet need here within the next two years."
Vladimir Gurdus, CEO, D-Pharma, a managing company of RusnanoMedInvest and NovaMedica, at the conference hosted by the Institute of Adam Smith
New manufacturing is projected to be certified not only meeting all international standards but also FDA approved GMP standards — this will provide facilities on localizing the production of drugs in Russia to American pharmaceutical companies.
At present, NovaMedica’s leadership and Kaluga region have signed a Memorandum of understanding; negotiations are in progress. A Cooperation Agreement is anticipated to be signed any time soon.
Kaluga region have exercised best efforts to centralize NovaMedica’s manufacturing plant.
”It was important to us to engage this investor to develop a pharmaceutical cluster and the region in general. Meetings have been conducted with the leadership, presentations have been made demonstrating the Kaluga region’s potential; all advantages and disadvantages have been discussed; we made our best efforts in justifying the highlights of investment in the region. We have discussed tax preferences acting in the Kaluga region; we also explained that we provide building land plots and that there is a positive experience shared by other investors in regard to the localization of production in the Kaluga region."
Lubov’ Almazova, Head of Department for the support of investment projects of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Kaluga region, SmartNews
New manufacturing plant is projected to be localized at the site of Grabtsevo industrial park neighboring with Novo Nordisk (Danish producer of insulin) and Berlin-Chemie (German manufacturer of pharmaceutical products).
“The region will only benefit from the localization of NovaMedica’s manufacturing plant. It includes not just working spaces, given are high-tech working spaces. It will expand our pharmaceutical cluster qualitatively and enable take the region to the market of pharmaceuticals and to upgrade the status of the region. The fact that the plant is highly technological and safe will result in further development of the region."
Irina Novikova, Deputy CEO, Agency of innovative development of the Center of the cluster development of the Kaluga region, SmartNews
Expert’s opinion
Viktor Dmitriev, CEO, Association of the Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers
— Pharmaceutical cluster is one of the instruments to drive growth of domestic pharmaceutical industry. Among its objectives are development and creation of innovative drugs. Moreover, pharmaceutical clusters encourage import substitution, because the major players here are foreign companies localizing domestically manufactured, namely Russian, pharmaceutical products in Russia. A cluster, however, like any mechanism, is very sensitive if an element of the whole cluster fails. Lack of specialists, regulatory inferiority and ineffective pricing policy — If the State can admit that such problems exist and will eliminate them, clusters will definitely begin to grow in Russia. If the region has serious intentions to localize the pharmaceutical cluster it will establish an infrastructure and make any possible effort to encourage the business development. For instance, Kaluga and Yaroslavl. Companies only need to come to the site and start construction. Tax preferences in the region are a crucial moment for the
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The RMI group has completed sertain projects
The RMI Group has exited from the capital of portfolio companies:
Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc.