FINE CHEMICALS SECTOR IN ARMENIA
There are multiple opportunities to source - right here in Armenia -both fine and specialty chemical products and the decades-long research development efforts that has led to the creation of these and other brand new performance products. Armenia has a long tradition of educational depth and research excellence that has been a hallmark of Armenian technology for literally hundreds of years.
The fine chemicals “area” in Armenia is actually composed of two clusters. The first cluster is so called “Commercial Entities” that represents actual producers of fine chemicals. The second cluster called “Research Institutes,” is composed of those institutes conducting research in developing new fine chemicals and/or in applying fine chemicals to new applications.
Producers of specialty and fine chemicals are ready to provide over 5,000 specialty and fine chemical products, which can be found at www.finechemicalsmarket.com. In addition, these producers are custom manufacturers, offering capacity and capability for producing relatively small amounts (up to ton lots) of high purity and high cost products, as well as products with difficult or time-consuming production routes. All this is regularly done for customers on six continents.
There are 93 research centers and institutions in Armenia. Of these, five research institutes can be said to be working primarily with fine chemicals. More specifically, these five research institutes are focused on three fields for most of their pure and applied research and development activities: pharmaceuticals, crop protection and other agricultural chemicals, and food/flavor ingredients and medical research products.
Armenian pharma research institutes have new active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) developed and patented, waiting for licensing discussions, as well as groundbreaking research in many directions: APIs for treatment of cardiovascular, neuropsychic, and infectious diseases and malignant tumors; clinical results (cellular level) for novel cardioactive hormones, and new metal-containing proteins and enzymes, for treating neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s; etc.
Armenian agrochemicals institutes have new crop protection products patented and field-tested, showing high cost-effectiveness, low toxicity, and complete environmental acceptability in all applications: a full range of new technology commercial herbicides, pesticides, & fungicides; and new synthetic pheromones with biotraps for easy, safe, ecological, and cost-efficient use.
The labor/administration cost complement for developing a new pharmaceutical, agrochemical, or other fine chemical molecule in Armenia is extremely low. The average monthly salary including all “labor on-costs” (taxes, benefits, pension, etc) for a research scientist with 5 to 10 years of experience in the sector is about US$150. This compares with the average monthly US salary in 2004 – without any labor “on-costs” – for a research chemist with an undergraduate degree of over US$5,000.
This is such a major strength for Armenian Research Institutes that it cannot be overstated in light of the current trend of establishing cost-effective overseas centers of research excellence: the latest world trend in applied, especially in fundamental research is outsourcing/offshoring.
Armenia’s tradition in the fine chemical sector together with Armenia’s well-educated and experienced labour force with very competitive wage rates perfectly matches the needs of chemical component production, which is labour and scientific intensive. This makes the country a profitable location for chemical production and R&D.
Key sectors:
IT, Electronics and Precision Eng., Mining, Energy, Fine chemicals and pharmaceutecal, Jewelry and diamonts, Textiles and Closing, Food and drinks, Tourism