Inauguration of Lek's new plant
On September 18, 1998 Lek inaugurated a new plant for production of penicillin products in Prevalje. The plant is expected to contribute significantly to the development of the region, as pointed out by the company’s members of management during the panel discussion organized on the occasion. To accompany the important event, Lek in its head office in Ljubljana hosted exhibition of paintings of Stojan Brezočnik, an outstanding Carinthian painter.
The production of pharmaceutical products in Prevalje commenced in 1976, initially within the former Otiški Vrh Textile Industry Plant (TIO). Having outgrown the packaging operations, the newly-founded division focused on production of various products, especially tablets (analgesics). Following the recommendations of the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the WHO, which specify that the production of penicillin be performed separately from other drugs, Lek’s production of antibiotics was transferred from Ljubljana to Prevalje a year later. As a result, Lek antibiotic production was the first one in Eastern Europe to fully comply with the mentioned regulations.
The most important product and, consequently, our main investment in Prevalje involves the AmoksiklavŽ project and a state-of-the-art tablet plant where Lek’s number one drug is being produced. The production of AmoksiklavŽ in Lek started in the year 1987 and the product became very soon one of the leading products of Lek. The major contribution to the quick success of the product was the own production of the main active ingredient, Clavulanic Acid.
To enable a further production growth, a decision to invest CHF 37 million $ in a new plant was adopted in 1994. Already two years later the entire production program was approved by the BSI and Lek was granted the ISO 9001 certificate as the first pharmaceutical plant/company in Europe.