March 10 (SeeNews) - Slovenian pharmaceutical company Lek, a subsidiary of Switzerland's Novartis, said it plans to invest $400 million (379 million euro) in the construction of a high-tech biosimilars production centre at its factory in Lendava.
Lek plans to hire 300 employees at the new centre, which will start at the end of 2026 production activities with low environmental impact, based on sustainable principles, Lek said in a statement on Thursday.
The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Slovenian economy ministry for the project, which will represent the largest single investment in Lek's history and one of the largest ever in Slovenia, it said.
''I am convinced that the Lendava site will also be very successful in the field of high-tech biopharmaceutical production of large molecules. In doing so, it will have the full support of an internal environment geared towards continuous improvement and achieving the highest quality of processes and management of sustainability aspects. We are pleased to have the confidence of Sandoz and the support of the government," Lek president Robert Ljoljo said at the signing ceremony.
Lek plans to start building the production centre this year, it said.
According to Slovenian media reports, Novartis plans to transfer Lek's assets worth 691.6 million euro to its other local unit, Novartis Slovenia, and will relocate Lek's manufacturing of solid products in Ljubljana, as well as active ingredients and biological drugs at a factory in Menges, to Novartis Slovenia. The restructuring is part of the process of spinning off its Sandoz division, which includes Lek.
Lek, which operates as a unit of Sandoz, has about 1,260 employees at the Menges factory that produces several active pharmaceutical ingredients for Novartis' innovative drugs as well as generic active ingredients.
Novartis announced the Sandoz spin-off last year. The Swiss group aims to focus on hematology, oncology, immunology, neuroscience and cardiovascular treatments, while Sandoz will retain the generics and biosimilars division.
($ = 0.94847 euro)