Foundation stone laid for the largest Novartis investment in Slovenia

The value of the first investment stage is 85 million Euros, starting in 2017 with expected completion by 2019. The total value of the investment will amount to 105 million Euros and is the largest Novartis investment in Slovenia to date.

“With this investment in a new production plant in Prevalje, Novartis reaffirmed its intention of a long-term presence in Slovenia. Since 2003, Novartis has invested in Slovenia more than 1.9 billion Euros. More than 1 billion Euros has been dedicated to development, and the rest to modernisation and expansion of production capacities. Over the last five years, Novartis employed in total more than 1400 new associates in Slovenia,« said Vojmir Urlep, President of the Board of Management of Lek, at the foundation-laying ceremony and added: »Novartis’ high investments in the development of Lek are the result of the knowledge of our employees, as well as demonstrated high quality of our leadership, processes, products and services. Last year, Novartis was the first company to bring innovative pharmaceutical production to Slovenia and started developing finished biopharmaceutical products at Lek. The new production plant in Prevalje will, along with increasing production capacity, strengthen the competitiveness of the Prevalje site and its significance within Lek and Novartis.”

When implementing the investment in Prevalje, Lek will cooperate mainly with Slovenian companies; positive impacts on the national economy are expected to be seen already in the early stage of construction. Both the concept and projects for construction were made entirely in Slovenia, utilizing local knowledge.

At the ceremony, the Slovenian Prime Minister, Dr Miro Cerar, emphasised: "Today's laying of the foundation stone for the largest Novartis investment in Slovenia to date reflects successful work, quality and performance of Lek and all of its employees. For Prevalje, Carinthia and Slovenia as a whole, this investment presents a strong incentive for further development, and further creating new jobs and demonstrates that Slovenia is an attractive location for foreign investment. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia welcomes the decision of Novartis which recognizes Slovenia as one of the key countries that provide a transparent and secure business environment with an educated, high quality workforce; as a location, suited for long-term investments, creating new business projects and exploiting the business opportunities offered by the Slovenian environment. As Prime Minister I will continue to strive to improve the business environment, as I would like to have more events like this one today.” Prime Minister adds that “today's investment demonstrates the special recognition of Carinthian knowledge as well as the people of Carinthia, because Novartis decided to choose Carinthian knowledge, Carinthian innovation and this particular part of Slovenia.”

Lek has been operating in Prevalje for nearly 40 years. Broad-spectrum antibiotic, the finished pharmaceutical product that is manufactured here, is sold in more than 60 most demanding markets around the globe, including the USA. Annually, more than half a billion tablets are manufactured in Prevalje.

The new production plant and continuing employment growth are based on intensive demand growth as recorded by the Prevalje site in the recent development period. The average annual production growth over the last five years has been namely more than 10%.

“We are pleased that our investment in the new production plant can further strengthen the role of one of the key economic entities and employers in the region of Carinthia. More than 95% of our workforce comes from municipalities in the Mežica and Upper Drava valley. More than half of the employees are women. We achieve Novartis’ principle of responsible business conduct through continuous investment in environmental technologies, which accompany all our investments and process improvements, « stressed at the ceremony Zlatko Ajd, Director Anti-infectives Prevalje, and added: »The new production plant will be of course also equipped with the most advanced technologies available at the time of the investment. Novartis environmental standards are in some cases even more stringent than the applicable legislation in the EU. At the Prevalje site, we will implement Novartis standard for extremely low levels of pharmaceutical ingredients in wastewaters, which is considerably stricter than that of European legislation. We consider responsible business conduct also through our long-term cooperation with the local associations and organisations in the field of education, cultural and social activities.”

To guarantee the successful delivery of this key project and continue the ongoing operational performance of the site Nick Page, Global Head Anti-Infectives in Novartis Technical Operations, was delighted to announce at today’s event the following appointments to the Prevalje leadership team, which will be effective May 1^st, 2017: Zlatko Ajd will take on the new role of Head Expansion Project Prevalje, and Roman Burja, currently Head Production at Prevalje will become Site Head of Prevalje. Roman joined Novartis in 2001 and during this time he has undertaken a variety of roles in the Development, Technical Life Cycle Management and Production functions at both Mengeš and Prevalje. Roman has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana.

The investment in the new Lek Prevalje production plant will be placed in the existing spatial plans and is, according to the opinion of an independent expert institution, in view of the planned mitigation measures, fully acceptable for the environment. Good results with regard to health, safety and environment are also otherwise a condition for the acquisition of Novartis’ investments, as all Lek’s investment projects are accompanied by technological innovations and improvements of environmental performance.