Flexible Biomanufacturing Facility in Russia Built to Meet Local Demand

R-Pharm Group, a private Russian pharmaceutical company, has opened a biopharmaceutical production plant in Yaroslavl, Russia, to produce biologics and biosimilars to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer. The facility, which has a line capacity is 2,000 L of cell culture per production cycle, is ready to be validated to US and Russia FDA and GMP requirements, the company reports.

The facility is equipped with GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory manufacturing platform, which enables manufacturers such as R-Pharm to rapidly respond to local healthcare needs by bringing more biological drugs to market at a quick pace, according to a GE Healthcare statement.

In a statement, Russian officials noted that the new facility is representative of a trend toward more biopharmaceutical manufacturing in the country. "Modern technologies have an important role to play for Russian biopharmaceutical companies developing new products within the national Pharma-2020 program. Opening of a new biopharma production platform, such as R-Pharm’s FlexFactory, shows that we have the right targets and milestones in place, and that companies are helping us to reach the objectives that we have set in the program,” said Sergey Tsyb, deputy minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

“Since we started implementing the program, a large number of the major foreign biopharmaceutical companies made the decision to manufacture within Russia, and as a result, the share of pharmaceuticals made locally has gone from 4% in 2009 to 35% in 2015. I’m certain that opening of the new production platform by R-Pharm will be a further catalyst for continued growth,” said Olga Kolotilova, Head of Department of Development of Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry for Ministry for Industry and Trade, Russian Federation.

Representatives of the Russian Ministries of Public Health and Industry and Trade, Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare, and the regional government joined R-Pharm and GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences division in Russia for the official opening on Sept. 22, 2016.

Source: GE Healthcare Life Sciences