Novo Nordisk opens $100m insulin factory in Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster

Danish multinational pharmaceutical company  Novo Nordisk last week opened a $100m insulin manufacturing plant in the central Russian region of Kaluga. “The manufacturing facility… is a sign of our long-term commitment to people with diabetes in Russia, where close to 10 million people have the disease,” CEO Lars Rebien Sorensen said. “With our investment in local manufacturing, we [can] ensure [the] availability of high-quality modern insulin to people with diabetes in Russia who rely on our products every day.”
The facility is part of the Kaluga healthcare cluster which has already attracted €450m in investment  and which is expected to produce 12% of Russia’s entire pharmaceutical supplies by 2020. Over 30 pharmaceutical companies are registered in the oblast,  including AstraZeneca and Germany’s Khemopharm. The soaring cost of medicines has been one of the major side-effects of the drop in the rouble’s value over the past year.