The Medsintez plant from Novouralsk (a part of the Ural pharmaceutical holding being created by the government of the Sverdlovsk region and the Yunona holding) is to launch manufacturing of the first Russian insulin this May.

The construction of an insulin workshop with an annual capacity of 10 billion international units was completed as far back as in November 2007; still, a license granting the right to commercial-scale production was obtained only in April 2008. Medsintez will be the first enterprise in Russia able to commercially produce finished forms of genetically engineered human insulin  in accordance with the international GMP standard. The production can meet 100% of the insulin medicine demand in Russia and the CIS countries, while the number of affected people increases by 5-10% annually.

Today, 96% of the domestic market is shared by Novo Nordisk (Denmark), Eli Lily (USA) and Aventis (Germany), which supply the products worth 5 billion roubles each year. Alexander Petrov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Yunona holding (which manages Medsintez) claims that the domestic insulin will be much cheaper than the imported: one - about 150 roubles per bottle, which will allow regions to reduce their budget expenses on purchasing the drug via tenders. Interestingly, in anticipation of the emergence of Russian insulin, foreign manufacturers also began to lower their prices.

To withstand competition with importers, Medsintez plans to build an insulin substance production complex. This is the last foreign component, 85% of the cost of insulin. Today, Ural companies buy the substance at 65 euros per kilogram; the domestic one will be 37 euros cheaper. Building the additional production will take 50 million euros. The construction is scheduled to start already on May 15 this year.