VIANEX invests €12.5M in new R&D Centre in Patras

The investment, amounting to €12.47 million, was implemented under Greece’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0”, funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU programme, and aims to strengthen Greece’s position on the pharmaceutical research and development map in Southeast Europe.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by representatives of the government, local administration, and the business community, including Adonis Georgiadis, Lazaros Tsiavaridis, Iasonas Fotilas, Nektarios Farmakis, and Theodoros Tryfon.

The new centre makes use of advanced technologies and has the capacity to develop and produce multiple pharmaceutical dosage forms. More than 20 development programmes for generic medicines and new pharmaceutical formulations are already underway, while the centre is also participating in international research initiatives, such as the European GENz-trials programme, which leverages artificial intelligence technologies for the design and execution of clinical trials.

The new R&D Centre also conducts bioequivalence studies, further enhancing its capabilities in the development of pharmaceutical products that meet the highest international standards of quality and safety.

The centre currently employs 20 specialised scientists and is expected to serve as a hub for attracting research talent and fostering collaborations with universities, research institutions, and international organisations.

The investment forms part of VIANEX’s strategy to strengthen innovation, domestic production, and extroversion. At the same time, it capitalises on the strong scientific ecosystem of Patras, where the group has maintained a production presence since 1999 through Factory D, one of the most specialised cephalosporin manufacturing units in Europe.

The Chairman and CEO of VIANEX, Dimitris Giannakopoulos, described the investment as a tangible demonstration of the group’s commitment to science and the Greek economy. He emphasised that the objective is the development of innovative pharmaceutical solutions with an international orientation, further enhancing the competitiveness of the Greek pharmaceutical industry.

For his part, the Vice Chairman of the group, Konstantinos Panagoulias, noted that the choice of Patras was based both on the company’s existing industrial presence and on the region’s significant academic and research advantages.

The Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, described the new Research and Development Centre as a strategic infrastructure for the country, highlighting its contribution to strengthening the international competitiveness of the Greek pharmaceutical industry at a time when the sector continues to invest despite challenges posed by the existing clawback framework.

With this new investment, VIANEX strengthens the link between research and production, expands its development footprint in Western Greece, and creates the conditions for the production of high value-added pharmaceutical products, while also enhancing the extroversion and innovative capacity of the Greek pharmaceutical industry.