The EBRD is supporting the expansion of the leading privately-owned Uzbek pharmaceutical company Jurabek Laboratories with a US$3.65 million financing package. The funds will be used for the acquisition of equipment for the production of various types of intravenous infusions and their packaging into modern polypropylene vials.

With the new equipment Jurabek Laboratories will become the leading local producer of these types of intravenous infusions packaged in polypropylene vials, the most advanced packaging, which is currently 100% imported. Locally produced intravenous infusions are usually still packaged in glass bottles. Jurabek expects to be able to sell its products about 10% cheaper than imported ones.

Jurabek Laboratories Ltd. was established in 1996 as a second leg of the business of Jurabek Drugstore, the first private pharmacy in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. The success of the drugstore and well-established business contacts with medicine suppliers encouraged the owners to set up their own pharmaceutical production in the mid-1990s in the city of Almalyk, Tashkent region.

Today, Jurabek has 225 employees and produces 15% of Uzbekistan''s domestically produced pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, penicillin and generica. While 200 out of about 300 regional wholesalers buy from Jurabek by now, the main competition for the company on the domestic market comes from imported medicines.