Russian AstraZeneca plant launches new line for vital cancer drug

KALUGA. Nov 2 (Interfax) - AstraZeneca Industries LLC (the Russian plant of the Swedish-British biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in Vorsino) has completed the construction and installation of a new line for the production of an anti-tumor drug that has been on the list of vital and essential medicines since 2021, the Kaluga region's regional development agency said.

Commissioning work is currently under way.

"The new line will produce the full-cycle anti-tumor drug Lynparza (active substance: olaparib). The production capacity of the new section will be up to 50 million tablets per year," the agency said.

Full-cycle localization of production will increase the availability of modern cancer therapy and reduce dependence on imported supplies, it said. The need for this drug in Russia remains high.

The enterprise will start producing test and validation batches of the drugs in 2027. Commercial batch production will begin in H2 2028.

The AstraZeneca Industries plant in Vorsino (Kaluga region), which has a capacity of 40 million packages or 850 million tablets per year, was commissioned in October 2015, with more than $224 million invested in the project. Commercial production began in 2016.

AstraZeneca develops and commercializes medicines for gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and neurology, as well as oncological and infectious diseases. The company operates in more than 100 countries, and its manufacturing base numbers 30 plants.