Novartis moves back launch date for pharmaceutical plant in St. Petersburg to Q3 2015
ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Pharmaceutical concern Novartis Neva LLC has postponed the date for completing construction and commissioning of a production plant at the Novo-Orlovskaya special economic zone in St. Petersburg to the third quarter of 2015 from the end of 2014 previously, the municipal committee for industrial policy and innovation said in a press release.
The alteration to the schedule was approved on Thursday by the Economic Development Ministry's expert council, the press release says.
Novartis told Interfax that the postponement was "due to certain technical adjustments to the basic project configuration."
Switzerland-based Novartis began building the new plant in 2012. It will have capacity to produce 1.5 billion solid oral tablets on the GMP standard. Investment will total an estimated $138 million. The first production was expected to be received in 2016 upon completion of registration procedures.
A Novartis Neva representative did not know whether the postponement would affect the date for launching sale of product from the plant.
The technical-innovative St. Petersburg SEZ, which began operating in 2007, includes two areas: Neudorf (19 hectares) and Novo-Orlovskaya (110 hectares). It has 33 resident companies.
