Sopharma, cooperation partner of Vienna Economic Forum, has opened a new factory in Sofia.
H.E. John Rowan, Irish Ambassador, Mihail Mikov, Chairman of the National Assembly and Ognian Donev, D.Sc. (Econ.), Chairman of the Board of Directors and Executive Director of Sopharma, Member of the Board of Vienna Economic Forum, opened Sopharma’s new high technology plant for solid dosage forms.
The participation of His Excellency John Rowan is symbolic in itself since Ireland is the country holding the EU Presidency at present, and part of machines to the value of about 4 mln levs were bought with funds earned under a European Competitiveness Project.
The preliminary design for the new plant received a Class 1 Investor Certificate in 2007 from the Bulgarian Investment Agency.
The construction of the plant has completely changed Sopharma and is the last step in the modernisation of all production facilities. The investment in the new facility amounts to 75 million levs. The new manufacturing complex was built for two and a half years and it includes a plant for solid dosage forms with a gross floor area of 21 280 m² and a laboratory and administrative complex with an area of 5 000 m².
The capacity of the plant for solid dosage forms is 4 milliard tablets per year and it will ensure 420 new jobs.
This plant gives a new level of pharmaceutical manufacturing in Bulgaria, according to Mr. Donev’s words. The new plant is the basis on which the Company will upgrade. Implementation of new technologies and products still lies ahead, which will depend on the development activity for which there will be much more funds available after the large investment in the plant, explained Donev.
„What makes us happy is that these jobs will be for operation of high technology equipment and I hope, considering conditions in Bulgaria, these will be well-paid jobs. We have never stopped making investments, we are faced with the opening of a warehouse in Varna, and then in Plovdiv, there are a lot of things which we can do, but it seems that in the field of manufacture we have already radically changed the company’s image”, said Ognian Donev.
Guests at the opening were Evgeni Ivanov, Nikolay Dobrev, Levon Hampartsumyan, Kiril Domuschiev, Radosvet Radev, Hristo Hristov, Maxim Mayer, Nikolay Hadzhidonchev and other officials.