Dutch company to invest $62.6 million in medicine production in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has discussed a $62.6 million project aimed at expanding pharmaceutical production in Kazakhstan with Jerzy Starak, a representative of the Netherlands-based Polpharma Group.
The two sides discussed the progress of the Chimpharm factory expansion in Shymkent, Kazakhstan’s largest pharmaceutical company and part of the Polpharma Group, including the construction of new laboratories and production buildings.
The enterprise’s production capacity is expected to increase by 2 billion items of medicine annually, to be released under the SANTO Member of Polpharma Group trademark. The expansion is also expected to create 300 new jobs.
Local production will focus on medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis, chronic hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, malignant tumors, diabetes, mental disorders, nervous system conditions and cardiovascular diseases.
It is worth noting that Kazakhstan is striving to promote domestic pharmaceutical production through the transfer of medicine technology, alongside development of scientific and export potential.
«Kazakhstan’s government is interested in implementing socially important production projects on a large scale and will provide all the necessary support for the timely launch of the investment project,» Bektenov highlighted. He also instructed the Ministry of Healthcare and Shymkent authorities to ensure the prompt preparation of the investment agreement.
Starak, in turn, stated than the new production facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and that its products will fully meet all the international pharmaceutical standards.
Polpharma Group has already invested more than $130 million in Shymkent’s Chimpharm. With the upcoming expansion, the total investment volume will exceed $192 million.
The factory produces over 280 generic drugs across 12 therapeutic classes. Its production processes are certified according to international standards, and the medicines are exported to a wide range of countries including Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
In early April, Markus Sieger, CEO of Polpharma Group, explained in an interview with Kursiv.media why the company is investing in Kazakhstan and what it hopes to achieve in the country.
Also in April, Egypt’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Epico, announced the construction of a $30 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Saran, in the Karaganda region.
Furthermore, in early March, Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek stated that Kazakhstan aims to register its first domestically developed cancer treatment drug by the end of 2025, noting that the drug had successfully completed its first-stage clinical trials in 2024.
