Sergei Sobyanin inaugurates MEP Research & Laboratory Center

The Lefortovsky branch of the Moscow Endocrine Plant (MEP) on Laboratornaya Street has launched a new research and laboratory facility.

“The Moscow Endocrine Plant turns 80 years this year. Its glorious history stretches from the times of Great Patriotic War, when it provided necessary medicines for the front, until the outbreak of the pandemic, when the plant also joined the fight and helped with the provision of drugs. Today, when our pharmaceutical industry is tasked to almost completely substitute import medicines, the plant is a flagship in this respect and provides domestic products in many areas, including vital, sometimes cancer drugs, anesthetics, and so on. They are erecting a large modern laboratory building nearby and a production facility, so MEP continues to grow rapidly,” said Sergei Sobyanin at the opening ceremony.

The Moscow Endocrine Plant is a backbone enterprise that plays a very important social role, as noted by Vasily Osmakov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. During the pandemic, it even began to produce face masks and implemented key projects to start producing pain relievers.

“There is still a lot to do. We are now negotiating investment for dozens of billions of rubles, because import substitution goals, whether it is locally produced reference medicinal products or the entire wide line of narcotic substances, are still great. We are truly grateful to Moscow and Sergei Sobyanin. This is a major, remarkable joint project with the federal authorities, the city government and the enterprise all engaged in one important task,” said Vasily Osmakov.

New jobs and dozens of pharmaceuticals

Over the past years, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Moscow Endocrine Plant” (also known as FSUE “Endopharm”) has been reconstructing its Lefortovsky branch together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation to create a high-tech vertically integrated enterprise that would produce dozens of pharmaceutical substances and finished pharmaceutical products. The total investment in the project will amount to approximately RUB 6 billion, with over 1,000 good jobs to be created at the enterprise.

In June 2022, as part of the project they put into operation a 700m² biotech innovative R&D center that houses six laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment, including domestically produced devices, to develop and improve production processes for more than 60 active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and high-tech medication products.

This year, the company has completed reconstruction and re-equipment of its 6,200m² research and laboratory building, including an API production line, a trial site, a RMP site, analytical labs and R&D/TT labs for finished pharmaceutical products. The project has raised RUB 944 million of investment and has created 250 new jobs.

Its third stage will involve reconstruction and re-equipment of a 14,500m² production building, with the reconstruction of the Lefortovsky branch to be completed by 2025.

Offset contracts

In accordance with the offset contract that MEP and the Moscow Government concluded in 2021, MEP would arrange local production of 20 vital drugs (nine international nonproprietary product names), such as glaucoma medicines, antibiotics, analgesics, antidepressants and neuroleptics, including:

— Betaxolol (glaucoma medicine);

— Diclofenac (analgesic);

— Clozapinum (antipsychotic);

— Levofloxacin (antibiotic);

— Nadroparin calcium (anticoagulant);

— Paroxetine (antidepressant);

— Pregabalin (seizure medication);

— Tramadol (opioid painkiller); and

— Rivastigmine (dementia medication).

Supplies to Moscow healthcare institutions are to begin in April 2023. Investment under the offset contract amounts to more than RUB 1 billion with the 8-year supplies for RUB 1.1 billion in total.

The research & laboratory center and local production lines under the offset contract are part of the long-term development program run by the Moscow Endocrine Plant, the capital’s largest pharmaceutical enterprise with analgesics as a core business.

National pharm flagship

“MEP is the largest pharmaceutical enterprise in the Russian capital. Its products are available in many pharmacies and hospitals across the city, while more than 75 per cent of MEP drugs are in the list of vital and essential medicines. My congratulations to the team of the Moscow Endocrine Plant on its 80th anniversary,” wrote Sergei Sobyanin on his telegram channel.

Source: Sergei Sobyanin's telegram channel @mos_sobyanin

MEP was founded in May 1943 in the premises of Mikoyan Meat-Processing Plant. In the context of the war, it quickly arranged production of insulin, miol and thyreoidinum that were needed both in the lines and in the home front. In 2023, it turns 80 years, so the Moscow Government renamed Proektiruemy Proezd No. 2095 where the MEP production buildings are located to Laboratornaya Street as proposed by the MEP team to celebrate the anniversary.

In the 1990s, after former Soviet republics stopped supplying raw materials, the company relied on in-house production of painkillers and other vital drugs.

Today, it is an indisputable leader in the Russian pharmaceutical industry and the largest pharmaceutical enterprise in Moscow by the number of employees, its Moscow-based sites employing 1,517 people. Its main production facility is located in the Nizhegorodsky district in southeast of the capital at 25 Novokhokhlovskaya Street. Also, MEP has a branch in Moscow, known as Lefortovsky (Laboratornaya Street), and two branches in the Bryansk region.

Apart from analgesics, the plant produces a wide range of medications used in ophthalmology, cardiology, gynecology, psychoneurological practices and anesthesiology in addition to anti-inflammatory drugs and metabolic agents.

Over 75 per cent of MEP products are in the list of vital and essential medicines, It is the only Russian producer of central analgesics used to help patients with chronic pains, including cancer patients.

It boasts enough capacity to produce FPPs in multiple dosage forms, such as ampoules, vials, pre-filed syringes, unit dose dispensing syringes, solid forms (tablets, capsules), and transdermal patches.

It has in-house R&D departments, an animal house, and an advanced accredited testing laboratory, while the production processes comply with GMP international quality standards.

The company supplies medicines to all regions across Russia and exports to 15 countries. In 2022, the Moscow Endocrine Plant produced almost 38 million packages, including 19.3 million (51 per cent) shipped to Moscow and other constituent entities in the Central Federal District, while almost 16 million (41.8 per cent) were sent to other Russian regions and 2.7 million (7.2 per cent) were exported.

It has contributed to the increase of marketable domestic narcotic and psychotropic drugs from 42 per cent (vs. 58 per cent of foreign medications) up to 98 per cent since 2018.

In 2016, the Moscow Government awarded it the status of industrial complex, thus, making it eligible for preferential income, property and land taxes paid to the municipal budget, with the overall tax benefits amounting to RUB 91 million to date.

“The city government really backs it up through long-term offset contracts and benefits. And many thanks to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, which invests a lot in the plant’s growth,” said the Moscow Mayor.

The Moscow Endocrine Plant benefits from good transport accessibility owing to Novokhokhlovskaya stations of the Moscow Central Circle and the second Moscow Central Diameter, which were opened in 2016 and 2018, respectively, with the Moscow High-Speed Diameter to be laid in its immediate vicinity, too.

In 2019, to implement a modernization program, they took a great effort to renovate and re-equip two workshops with a total area of more than 3,000 square meters in strict compliance with GMP international standards.

The TTS and OTF workshop was re-launched in May 2019, with investment in the workshop reconstruction amounting to RUB 140.3 million.

In January 2020, they built a 2,800m² workshop of lyophilized/liquid injectable drugs and eye drops with the project investment totaling RUB 1.2 billion. Lyophilisates are a solid dosage form of powder or porous paste that can be used as pharmaceutical substances in the production of other drug formulations (e.g., solutions, drops or suspensions).

Today, the company is running a project for reconstructing and re-equipping its Lefortovsky branch, to be finished by 2025.

In addition, it leased a 0.21 ha land plot on Novokhokhlovskaya Street from the city government to build a production and laboratory building to take up 15,200 square meters. The project is expected to raise more than RUB 1.3 billion and create over 260 jobs.

MEP products are used at 313 healthcare institutions in Moscow, which are in need for pain-relieving opioids. In addition, narcotic drugs are supplied for certain categories of people who are entitled to social welfare (17 international nonproprietary product names); more than 5,500 patients received them in 2022.

In less than three months of 2023, it provided medicines for 17,000 patients vs. 33,000 in the year of 2022.

Pharmaceutical industry in Moscow

Moscow has 28 SMEs engaged in R&D and production of pharmaceutical products, these including:

— Moscow Endocrine Plant (an industrial complex);

— Binnopharm JSC (an industrial complex);

— Medical Research and Production Complex “BIOTIKI” (an industrial complex);

— Makiz-Pharma LLC (an industrial complex);

— Moscow Pharmaceutical Factory (CJSC) (an industrial complex);

— Izvarino Pharma LLC;

— Firn M LLC;

— Biocad JSC;

— Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology;

— Scientific and Production Association for Immunological Preparations “Microgen” JSC.

They employ 14,400 people with the average monthly wage of RUB 131,000.

In 2022, they produced medicinal products for the amount of RUB 33.6 billion.

In total, the Moscow Government has signed nine offset contracts worth almost RUB 82.9 billion in aggregate; eight of them are for drugs and medical device production and another one is for baby foods. Four of those production sites are already operational and supplying products to the city.

In July 2022, the investment threshold for new or modernized production sites under offset contracts was lowered from RUB 1 billion to RUB 100 million, thus, making it possible to significantly expand offset arrangements. Moreover, they have set out to conclude another eight offset contracts for medicines, medical consumables and furniture, batteries for electric vehicles, etc., with total private investment under the new contracts to be approx. RUB 9 billion.