Governor Anatoly Artamonov announced that the hub will start with six residents Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, British-Swedish AstraZeneca, Germany’s Stada and Italy’s Menarini, as well as domestic drug makers Nearmedic Plus and Sphera-Pharm, according to The Moscow Times.
The companies have jointly invested more than $500m in their production facilities. And the regional government is negotiating with another four potential investors to join the hub.
The hub, which will also include a personnel training center, will be located in the city of Kaluga and two nearby towns, Vorsino and Obninsk.
The Kaluga Governor Anatoly Artamonov was quoted by the news agency as saying that the government made a decision that in addition to the car manufacturing hub, it will create a pharmaceutical hub.
"There’s no other region that could get six different pharmaceutical companies localizing production over a short period of time," Artamonov added.