The investment in the new plant reinforces Lithuania’s position as a high-tech centre in the Baltic and Nordic region, according to Professor Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, General Manager of Sicor Biotech/TEVA Baltics. He added: “Lithuania’s focus on a high-tech service economy has proven to be effective. An improved investment environment and the great potential of the country’s scientists and biotech professionals are attracting foreign investors in growing numbers.”

Prof Bumelis believes that Sicor Biotech/TEVA is now poised to gain a foothold in large markets like the US, Japan and Canada, where the company’s Lithuanian-made products will soon become available. Medicines produced by the company have already been approved for sale in the European Union, Switzerland, Russia, Israel and Brazil. Exports account for 90 per cent of Sicor Biotech/TEVA’s production this year, and will exceed 95 per cent when the Vilnius plant opens.

The new Sicor Biotech/TEVA plant will create 49 new jobs and will be built next to the company’s first plant on the Molėtai Highway in Vilnius. Planned at more than 3,000 sq m – the same size as the existing plant – the initial design and preparatory work are already underway, with construction to start this summer.