Sandoz breaks ground on biosimilar plant in Slovenia

Sandoz announced that it began construction on a new, state-of-the-art biosimilars production center in Brnik, Slovenia.

The $440 million project enables sterile product manufacturing in the region. It brings the company’s total planned and ongoing investment in Slovenia to more than $1.1 billion by 2029. Sandoz already has ongoing investments there, including a new biosimilar drug substance production center in Lendava and a biosimilar development center in Ljubljana.

According to a news release, Sandoz hopes to establish a fully integrated European biosimilar hub. The new Brnik facility will focus on producing injectable products for both the existing and upcoming portfolio of biosimilars. That includes preparation, filling, assembly and packaging of sterile injectable products, along with laboratories for quality control.

“Biosimilars is the fastest-growing segment of our pipeline as the need of patients and healthcare systems for these critical medicines continues to grow rapidly. As the global leader in the field, we are investing to meet rapidly growing patient demand,” said Richard Saynor, Sandoz CEO. With a commitment of over $1.1 billion, we are proud to significantly expand our biosimilar manufacturing capacity in Europe as Slovenia’s largest direct foreign investor. This is another major step that will position Sandoz uniquely to capitalize on the unprecedented biosimilars market opportunity of the next decade.”