OREANDA-NEWS. September 10, 2008. The EBRD is supporting the expansion of the leading privately-owned Uzbek pharmaceutical company Jurabek Laboratories with a USD3.65 million financing package. The funds will be used for the acquisition of equipment for the production of various types of intravenous infusions and their packaging into modern polypropylene vials, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

With the new equipment Jurabek Laboratories will become the leading local producer of these types of intravenous infusions packaged in polypropylene vials, the most advanced packaging, which is currently 100 per cent imported. Locally produced intravenous infusions are usually still packaged in glass bottles. Jurabek expects to be able to sell its products about 10 per cent cheaper than imported ones.

Jurabek Laboratories Ltd. was established in 1996 as a second leg of the business of Jurabek Drugstore, the first private pharmacy in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. The success of the drugstore and well-established business contacts with medicine suppliers encouraged the owners to set up their own pharmaceutical production in the mid-1990s in the city of Almalyk, Tashkent region.

Today, Jurabek has 225 employees and produces 15 per cent of Uzbekistan’s domestically produced pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, penicillin and generica. While 200 out of about 300 regional wholesalers buy from Jurabek by now, the main competition for the company on the domestic market comes from imported medicines.

Fernand Pillonel, Head of the EBRD Resident Office in Uzbekistan, said the Bank’s loan will help make an already strong local producer even stronger. “This is especially timely and important as it will lessen Uzbekistan’s dependence on imported pharmaceuticals. The country’s whole health sector will benefit from high-quality products at competitive prices”, he added.

The EBRD decided in its latest Strategy for Uzbekistan, adopted in July 2005, to focus on the support of private sector investment and entrepreneurship. A new country strategy is currently being finalised.