Ljubljana - Lek, a Novartis-owned Slovenian drug maker, is planning an EUR 82.6 million investment in Ljubljana to set up a new production facility for liquid vials and pre-filled syringes. The government is expected to subsidise it with EUR 6.56 million, according to working documents prepared for government sessions.

Construction of the Production of Aseptic Products - Facility 70 in Verovškova Street, Lek's main site in the capital, is planned to start in October and is slated for completion in October 2024.

The investment will create around 120 jobs.

It will feature more than 14,000 square metres and state-of-the-art technology for aseptic processes - isolator technology, which no other pharma facility in Slovenia has.

Lek could not comment on the new project until the government's clearance of the subsidy, which is expected next week.

Lek is also starting in Ljubljana the filling and packing of Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine.

Its CEO Robert Ljoljo told the newspaper Finance at the end of last month that Swiss pharma group Novartis sees Slovenia as its strategic location.