Student placements at the Research Institute for Biological Safety Issues and «OtarBioPharm» LLP
Students from the School of Pharmacy at S.D. Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University (KazNMU) underwent a research and industrial placement from 30 March to 10 April at the Research Institute for Biological Safety (RIBS) and «OtarBioPharm» LLP, located in the village of Gvardeysky near Otar station in the Zhambyl region. KazNMU named after S.D. Asfendiyarov has signed Memoranda of Cooperation with these organisations.
The Research Institute for Biological Safety celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2023 and the first phase of the OtarBioPharm plant opened in October 2021.
The Research Institute of Biological Safety and OtarBioPharm LLP, along with other organisations, are part of «QazBioPharm» National Holding JSC, whose main objective is to ensure biological safety, sustainable development and improvement of the biopharmaceutical market infrastructure, and to stimulate the development of biopharmaceutical science and industry.
It is symbolic that the «OtarBioPharm» LLP plant is located next to the NIIPBB. Some of the plant’s employees previously worked at the RIBS and have extensive experience in the development of preparations for the diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases in farm animals and humans.
Construction of the plant began on 12 June 2020, at a time when the coronavirus pandemic was raging across the world. Given the importance of the facility to the country, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, visited the plant on 4 October 2021. Industrial batches of the QazCovid-in (QazVac) vaccine, developed in Kazakhstan at the Research Institute for Biological Safety, were produced at this plant.
The S.D. Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University successfully cooperates with the Research Institute of Biological Safety and «OtarBioPharm» LLP in areas such as scientific research, the completion of degree theses, and the development of master’s and doctoral programmes in the fields of biotechnology, the production of biotechnological preparations, and biological safety. The partners are also collaborating on a project by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan to develop a brucellosis vaccine based on genomic technologies.
Fourth-year students from the School of Pharmacy, studying the «Pharmaceutical Production Technology» programme, have been undertaking their pre-graduation placements at the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems and the «OtarBioPharm» plant for the third consecutive year.
The Research Institute of Biological Safety has a 68-year history. The Institute is engaged in the development of means and methods for identifying threats, assessing biological safety, and manufacturing diagnostic and prophylactic preparations, including those against dangerous and highly dangerous viral diseases affecting humans, animals and birds. The institute’s staff have extensive experience in the fields of biosafety, biotechnology, virology, microbiology and immunology.
Scientists at the institute have developed and introduced more than 70 products, including 30 vaccines, 29 test systems and over 15 different biological preparations. Each year, 27 million doses of various vaccines are produced.
In 2021, the Al-Farabi State Prize in Science and Technology for 2021 was awarded to seven scientists from the RIBS, the developers of the QazVac vaccine, for their series of works on the topic ‘Ensuring the biological safety of the Republic of Kazakhstan: advanced scientific technologies and production’.
During their placement at the RIBS, the students familiarised themselves with the main areas of research, including the development of technologies for the manufacture of immunobiological preparations against socially significant infections in humans, animals and birds; and the experimental, pilot-scale and commercial production of vaccines and other medicinal products. The students particularly enjoyed working in the molecular biology and genetic engineering laboratory. The creation of new, modern means of diagnosis, treatment and prevention for diseases affecting humans, farm animals and plants is impossible without the use of molecular biology and genetic engineering methods.
The students also found the visit to «OtarBioPharm», the country’s first full-cycle biopharmaceutical plant, which complies with international Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, both interesting and informative.
Plant staff gave the students a tour of the production line, quality control laboratories, and essential support systems and equipment, such as the water treatment system, inspection equipment, labelling equipment, the control system, etc. The students were shown the vaccine production line, laboratory equipment and mobile reactors.
The company offers bulk product filling services into 2R and 4R vials, as well as 100 ml vials. The washing and sterilisation of vials, the metered filling of preparations into vials, their capping and sealing with ‘flip-off’ caps (i.e. primary packaging) is carried out automatically on a specialised production line, under cleanroom conditions. Where a dry preparation is required, the line is equipped with a freeze-drying machine.
Vials are checked for leak-tightness and other physical parameters of the preparations in an automated mode using modern, high-tech inspection machines. The processes of labelling, marking and secondary packaging of vials are also automated at the plant. Interim storage and storage of finished products are carried out in the plant’s own climate-controlled chambers at temperatures of +2 to +8°C.
Such research and industrial placements yield positive results: in 2024 and 2025, graduates of the School of Pharmacy joined the staff of «OtarBioPharm» LLP. They work with great enthusiasm, striving to apply the knowledge gained at university, acquiring new skills and developing their expertise. The experimental component of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations on biological products is carried out at the Research Institute of Biological Safety and the «OtarBioPharm» plant.
