The Kazakhstan government has expressed its intention to collaborate with Pfizer and AstraZeneca to establish local production of medicines, media reports.
Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov led a council meeting to discuss this plan and emphasized the government's commitment to working with global pharmaceutical industry leaders and providing state support measures.
The government plans to initiate an investment agreement with Pfizer for the localization of drug production. Additionally, AstraZeneca has agreed to contract production of original medications with a $32mn investment.
The USA-based GE Healthcare and the Kazakhstan government signed a framework agreement for $60mn to localize medical equipment production in Kazakhstan. At the same time, several projects are being developed with Roche for a total of $2.5mn.
The government is also progressing with contract production projects with investors from the Republic of Korea, Türkiye, Egypt, and Israel.
In April this year, Daryo reported that Guldara Nurumova, a member of parliament in Kazakhstan, has unveiled that medicine prices could increase by up to 30%. The reason for this is that some small pharmacies in rural areas face difficulty complying with international standards, as the cost of upgrading their equipment, furniture, and premises averages around KZT 5mn. Furthermore, only 8% of the 10,000 pharmacies in the country meet the required Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) criteria, which has led to the closure of pharmaceutical companies and increased unemployment rates.
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