The new jobs, mostly in the segments of production, development, quality and biopharmaceutics, mean an expansion of the workforce by a quarter, director of corporate communications Katarina Klemenc explained.

Lek, which was acquired by Novartis in late 2002 for close to EUR 900m in what remains the biggest takeover in Slovenia to date, had 1,300 product launches in countries around the world last year, a 40% increase on the year before and at the same time accounting for 40% of all Sandoz launches.

Green investments were also substantial, especially with the goal of cutting emissions, and improvements of up to 41% have been secured.