Prime Minister Golob: “We invest in knowledge, and this investment is the result of such past investments”

Gregor Makuc, Chief Executive Director of Lek and President of Sandoz Slovenia, said in his opening speech at the ceremony marking the laying of the foundation stone for the new investment in Slovenia that this is Sandoz's third major investment in Slovenia in the last two years. The current investment is estimated at EUR 400 million. Glenn Gerecke, Chief Manufacturing and Supply Officer of Sandoz, said in his speech that what convinced them to invest in Slovenia was its location, in addition to its good logistics infrastructure and highly qualified experts. Richard Saynor, Chief Executive Director of Sandoz, expressed pride that Sandoz is the largest foreign investor in Slovenia. Together with the new production capacities at Brnik, their investments in Slovenia will exceed one billion euros over the next five years.

Prime Minister Golob began his speech by thanking Lek's employees for everything they have contributed to the company, to Slovenia as a whole and to the world. "You are the main reason why we are here today," he said and expressed his appreciation to the company's management.

The Prime Minister went on to express his satisfaction that, following the first investment in Lendava, today's investment is the third in a row, thus completing a series of investments by Sandoz in Slovenia. "This means that everything is in your hands, from development to final production, quality, and, of course, satisfied end users,” said the Prime Minister. He highlighted the importance of knowledge that enabled the company to secure these investments. He also emphasised the importance of investing in public education, public health and other public systems. "We will not allow things to fall apart due to small private interests," he said, adding that the government believes in the power of knowledge.

"We invest in knowledge, and this investment is the result of such past investments. What we can guarantee is that there will be even more investment in knowledge by the state. We want to build for the future, not just an ecosystem for today. That is why we are investing in a supercomputer and an intelligence factory, which will be dedicated to the economy. And pharmaceuticals is one of the sectors that will have priority access to this public research infrastructure," Prime Minister Golob added. He noted that this will enable us to combine the best we have – public infrastructure, private entrepreneurial initiative, and dedicated employees. "This way, we can all be proud of the society we are creating together," concluded the Prime Minister.

Let us recall that in April last year, Prime Minister Golob, together with Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor, attended the ceremony for laying the foundation stone for the state-of-the-art development centre – the technical development centre for biosimilar medicines in Ljubljana.

Lek farmacevtska družba d.d., a member of the Sandoz group, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in 2023 on the planned investment in a high-tech centre for the production of biosimilar medicines in Lendava. The ceremony for laying the foundation stone for the construction of the high-tech centre for the production of biosimilar medicines by the pharmaceutical company Lek in Lendava was also attended by Prime Minister Golob in December 2023, where he emphasised that this government has significantly increased investment in innovation, science and development, thereby creating high-tech jobs where knowledge will be generated that will be recognised worldwide and will attract capital from around the globe to Slovenia.

On the sidelines of the ceremony marking the laying of the foundation stone for Lek's new complex at Brnik, Prime Minister Golob met with CEO of Sandoz, Richard Saynor, and CEO of Lek and President of Sandoz Slovenia, Gregor Makuc, and his team. They discussed the growing importance of the pharmaceutical industry for Slovenia and the wider region, the need to strengthen the strategic autonomy of the European Union in an increasingly changing world, and the importance of the pharmaceutical industry in this area.