After all bids for construction exceeded the estimated two million euros, the Government approved additional funding to avoid repeating the tender and ensure the project in Rugvica continues.
The construction of the new Institute of Immunology in Rugvica, crucial for restarting domestic production of snake antivenom and other medicines, will not be delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles. Although all three bids for the administrative building significantly exceeded initial estimates, the Government intervened and will cover the difference from the state budget.
The Institute of Immunology (IMZ) estimated the value of the works at two million euros, but all bidders asked for more than three million. Such a situation usually results in the cancellation of the tender and a new public procurement procedure, which would set the project back by months. However, at its last session, the Government made a decision allowing IMZ to take on financial obligations charged to the budget.
Using the legal option to take on obligations of up to 1.5 million euros for contracts that will fall due in the coming years, the Government prevented a standstill. In this way, the most favorable bid was accepted, and the job was awarded to the Zagreb-based construction company Magnum Supra.
According to information from Jutarnji list, the administrative building in Rugvica will be built for 3.19 million euros excluding VAT. The director of IMZ, Vedran Čardžić, confirmed that the contract will be signed soon, and since the other bidders, Međimurje graditeljstvo from Čakovec and P.P. - Invest from Donji Stupnik, did not appeal the decision, the building is expected to be completed within a year.
The administrative building is just one part of an ambitious complex whose construction has been planned for five years. Work on the first and key facility, the snake antitoxin production plant, has been underway for over a year and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Health Minister Irena Hrstić. The external structure is complete, and now the clean rooms are being equipped and specialized equipment installed. According to announcements, the facility should be ready for inspections and obtaining the necessary permits by the end of the year.
In addition, the Municipality of Rugvica donated a plot of nearly 15,000 square meters to IMZ for the construction of a biological laboratory that will house animals crucial to the production and testing process. This part of the project is still in the phase of obtaining a building permit.
The new complex in Rugvica is of utmost importance because Croatia has not had its own production of these strategic medicines for over a decade. The Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices revoked IMZ's license for the production of blood derivatives and bacterial vaccines back in 2013, deeming the institute's old premises on Rockefeller Street in Zagreb "poor and in inadequate condition."
More than ten years have passed since then, and no medicine has been produced at the old location. With the construction of new facilities in Rugvica, in addition to the snake antivenom plant, there are plans to build a factory for processing blood plasma and producing viral vaccines, including those based on mRNA technology.
