February 2 (SeeNews) - Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis increased its investments in Slovenia to 346 million euro ($381 million) in 2022 from 289 million euro in the previous year in a bid to strengthen its local development and production capacity, its Slovenian subsidiary Lek said.
Novartis started the construction of an aseptic vial and syringe production facility in Ljubljana and launched a 110 million euro investment in the construction of biologics centre in Menges to support early phase clinical trials, Lek said in a statement on Wednesday.
Investments in environmental sustainability amounted to 10.5 million euro, Lek said.
Novartis maintained its leading position on the Slovenian pharmaceutical market with a 14% market share, while on the generics market, Lek strengthened its position as the second largest company with a 29% market share.
In 2022, Novartis Pharma and Novartis Oncology operated under the joint unit Innovative Medicines Slovenia, which is the largest provider of innovative medicines in Slovenia with a market share of almost 10%, Lek noted.
Novartis is active on the Slovenian market through its local subsidiaries Lek, Novartis Pharma Services and Sandoz. The Swiss group has invested about 3.4 billion euro in Slovenia since 2003.
($ = 0.9091 euro)