KFU and Izvarino Pharma’s joint production facility visited by Minister of Science and Higher Education of Russia Valery Falkov
The company’s primary goal is import substitution and Russia’s sovereignty in pharmaceuticals for transplantation and oncology.
Accompanied by Rector Lenar Safin and Izvarino Pharma CEO Orest Ibragimov, the minister toured the biological synthesis section, where he learned about the ingredient production technology. Specifically, he was shown methods for obtaining a cell bank in strain-processing rooms (specialized bacteria), as well as an area for their subsequent purification, fermentation, and dispersal.
This facility’s capacity allows it to meet the needs of the entire Russian and Eurasian Economic Union markets for drugs used to prevent transplant rejection. These drugs are of strategic importance to the healthcare system.
The delegation then proceeded to the chemical synthesis area, where pilot production of targeted anti-tumor drugs is underway. Here, specialized (flexible) units for fine organic synthesis and laminar flow cabinets – isolation devices for handling highly active substances – were neatly arranged.
In the Quality Control Department, Valery Falkov examined specific drugs produced through the collaboration of Kazan University scientists with Russia’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Overall, KFU is actively conducting research in innovative drug development. Izvarino Pharma group of companies, in turn, is scaling up the university’s developments, and the clinical trials themselves are conducted in accordance with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) requirements – an international standard establishing specific criteria for quality control.
Thus, the project’s implementation ensures a closed production cycle (from the strain to the finished substance) and independence from external suppliers for this critically important drug. Once the project reaches its planned capacity, it will be able to meet up to 90% of the Russian market’s demand for these APIs.
The minister praised this synergistic alliance of science and industry, noting the broad opportunities for interdisciplinarity, which today enables the production of highly active pharmaceutical substances needed in Russia for the production of antitumor, immunosuppressant, antiviral, and other vital drugs.
The center’s development plans include the creation of a national technology platform for gene and cell CAR-T therapy. The implementation of this therapy is one of the key areas of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for the Development of Genetic Technologies for 2019 – 2030 in Russia.