Groundbreaking ceremony held for first medicine plant in Azerbaijan
By Nigar Abbasova
Tuesday was a big day for Azerbaijan, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for the Azerbaijani-Russian joint pharmaceutical plant.
The country’s first pharmacy plant will be built in the Pirallahi Industrial Park.
Today, Azerbaijan produces only a minuscule share of the medicines that it consumes, while the overwhelming majority of pharmaceutical production is being imported. The plant is expected to allow the country to develop the medicine sector and expand the non-oil production in the country.
Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, addressing the ceremony, said that the plant will allow the country to significantly reduce its dependence on the import of medicines, adding that the enterprise will produce some 80 types of medicines.
He said that it is planned to invest some $74 million into the project, while Azerbaijan will be able to manufacture high-quality medicines within two years.
During the ceremony, Russian private hi-tech pharmaceutical company R-Pharm, Azerbaijan Investment Company and Vita-A LLC (Azerbaijan) signed an agreement on the creation of Hayat Pharm Joint Venture.
The project envisages creation of a large logistics centre, covering an area of some 5,000 cubic meters in 2016-2018.
The formation of the industrial complex, which is to consist of two stages, namely, the establishment of an enterprise for packing the officinal medicines and production of medications (tablets, capsules and pharmaceutical substances) will begin in 2017-2020. A quality control laboratory will be established in the country in 2016-2020.
Hayat Pharm’s share in the Azerbaijani pharmaceutical market is expected to be 6 percent by 2025. The local production will account for $70 million or 0.15 percent of GDP by 2025.
This will allow saving budgetary funds worth $53.6 million thanks to import substitution in medications.
Mustafayev further said that the country will soon launch the construction of other pharmaceutical plants, mentioning that the talks on cooperation in the pharmaceutical sphere are currently underway with a number of countries, including Iran and Turkey.
Iran, which possesses modern pharmaceutical system and 100-year experience in the sector, is expected to build a pharmaceutical plant in Azerbaijan’s Pirallahi settlement. The enterprise is planned to manufacture dozens of essential drugs for the treatment of heart diseases, contagious diseases, non-communicable diseases, as well as various types of antibiotics and painkillers.
The necessary medicines will be imported from Iran to Azerbaijan within the first stage, while Iran will provide all necessary technology for the production of drugs in the second stage of the project, production of medicines will be launched at the third stage.
Moreover, Egypt, which has rich and ancient medicine traditions, earlier expressed its interest in opening the plant for the production of medical equipment and drugs in Azerbaijan.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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