(Yicai) July 3 -- Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has officially broken ground at its second production base for innovative drugs in China.

Construction of Novartis’ CNY600 million (USD82.5 million) radiopharmaceutical manufacturing project in Haiyan county in Jiaxing, China’s eastern Zhejiang province, kicked off yesterday, Yicai learned from the Chinese branch of the company.

Expected to be completed and put into operation by the end of 2026, the facility is also Novartis’ first production base for its radioligand therapy, a cancer treatment drug using radioactive isotopes to deliver radiation directly to the tumor cells.

Radioligand therapy drugs need to reach patients within a few days from production because of the very short half-life period of radioactive isotopes. Therefore, the drug production schedule also needs to be accurately timed.

Novartis decided to build the radioligand therapy facility in Haiyan because China’s largest isotopes production base is located there, so it would be easier for the company to transport the product, train staff, promote integration, and achieve potential partnerships with competent professional institutions, Novartis told Yicai.

China is one of Novartis’ main strategic markets overseas, as the country’s demand for precision healthcare and personalized therapies is gradually growing, the firm noted. Novartis is striving to bring the world’s most advanced radioligand therapy and relevant technologies, and experience in promoting the standardized development of the nuclear medicine sector to China, it added. 

Since last year, the global radiopharmaceutical competition has heated up, and multiple pharmaceutical companies, such as Novartis, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck Sharp & Dome, started investing more for their business positioning in the industry.

The size of the global radioactive drug market is expected to reach USD13.7 billion by 2032 from USD5.2 billion in 2022, achieving an annual compound growth rate of 10 percent between last year and 2032, according to data from market research and consulting firm Precedence Research and Consulting.

Editor: Futura Costaglione