Merck (Darmstadt, Germany), a leading scientific and technological company, and the Russian biopharmaceutical company NANOLEK have launched the full-cycle production to manufacture one of the key medicines used in treating arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease and congestive heart failure. The drug will be produced at the facility of NANOLEK in Kirov region in full compliance with GMP standards.

To date, more than 110 employees are involved in the drug production process in Kirov. It has taken 4 years on the whole to set up a full-cycle production, technology transfer lasted for 2 years. The agreement between the companies is planned as long-term cooperation. The drug produced has been on the list of vital and essential medicines since 2010. The annual planned output of the pharmaceutical drug, when full throughput is reached in 2021, will amount to 650-700 million tablets. Setting up a local, Russian-based production of a foreign drug is a big step towards improving the security of the drug supply chain in Russia and accessibility for the patient.

“Today in Russia there are modern production sites that meet all international requirements and standards and offer growth opportunities both for foreign and Russian pharmaceutical providers. Setting up a local, Russian-based production of our second drug in Kirov is an additional benefit of Merck over other manufacturers,” said Matthias Wernicke, CEO of Merck Biopharma in Russia and the CIS.

According to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, currently 40% of Russian citizens suffer from hypertension. Arterial hypertension is one of the most common chronic non-specific human diseases, which account for 30% of all deaths, according to data provided by WHO. Reduction in mortality from cardiovascular diseases is one of the objectives in the Pharma 2020 pharmaceutical industry development strategy in Russia.

Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Yuri Karpov: “Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading global cause of death: more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause”. An estimated 17.9 million people died from CVDs in 2016, representing 31% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85% are due to heart attack and stroke”.

Vladimir Khristenko, President of NANOLEK: “We are very pleased about our long and successful cooperation with Merck, one of the largest scientific and technological companies in the world. We are confident that our cooperation efforts will help Russian patients get access to the medication with high-quality original drugs produced in Russia. An additional production line launched at the facility in Kirov is expected to boost production several times in order to sell drugs even to more people in need of them”.