Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH
Boost for the pharmaceutical industry in Austria: The Swiss Novartis Group continues to invest in the Tyrol location even after the spin-off from Sandoz.
The existing production facilities in Kundl and Schaftenau will each be expanded by 250 million euros. 350 new jobs will be created, said Novartis board member Steffen Lang yesterday, Thursday, at a press conference in Vienna. The occasion was the “InvestInAustria” congress organized by the Austrian Business Agency (ABA).
Novartis had already announced some of the investments. The plant in Schaftenau is already being built, the one in Kundl was decided on in 2023 and is scheduled to go into operation next year. In both cell culture facilities, nucleic acids for mRNA vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (containing only one clone) are to be produced, among other things.
Austria is a strategic location for production and research for Novartis, said Lang. According to previous information, 1.8 billion euros were invested in Austria in the past eight years. Novartis employs 3,300 people across Austria, including 3,000 in Tyrol.
Ecosystem with universities and companies
Investments of 75 million euros in Schaftenau were last announced in October 2023. At the time, Novartis management referred to the support of the Tyrolean state government and the federal government. Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Economics Minister Martin Kocher and Tyrol’s Governor Anton Mattle (all ÖVP) took part in the press conference in Vienna. The state of Tyrol and the federal government had already injected money in the past to keep pharmaceutical production in Austria. The Novartis investments are supported with funds from the research funding fund. Kocher emphasized that Austria is one of the few EU countries where pharmaceutical production is being expanded. The goal is an “ecosystem” with companies, universities and institutions.
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