Cadila Pharmaceuticals looking to set up $150 million manufacturing unit in Astrakhan

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat-based drug maker Cadila Pharmaceuticals is scouting for a location in Astrakhan, a major city in southern Russia, to house a $150-million facility, a company official with direct knowledge of the development told ET. The company is looking for 20 hectares of land.

Officials from Astrakhan, led by the chairman of the government of Astrakhan region, Konstantin Markelov, recently visited one of Cadila’s production facilities in India. Cadila officials too have visited several sites in the region and conducted negotiations.

An email query sent to Cadila Pharma remained unanswered.

Cadila Pharmaceuticals exports drugs to CIS countries, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. In 2009, the Russian government approved the Pharmaceutical Development Program for the domestic pharmaceutical industry until 2020. The goal is to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the drugs (in value terms) circulated in the Russian market are produced locally. Russian imported 73.1 per cent (value terms) of its medicines last year. The market pegged at $6 billion is expected to reach $25 billion by 2020.