Olaine Municipality
Soviet pharmaceutical hub (1972) that became Baltic's leading manufacturer. Olpha/Olainfarm supplies derivatives once made for USSR factories. €770M industry (2021).
Olaine is where the Soviet Union built its pharmaceutical supply chain—and where Latvia kept it after independence. On December 4, 1965, the Latvian SSR Council of Ministers ordered construction of a chemical-pharmaceutical factory. The first furagin synthesis occurred on October 10, 1972.
By 1976, the Olaine Chemical-Pharmaceutical Plant led the Latvbiofarm association, supplying active chemical ingredients and intermediates to manufacturing plants across the Soviet Union. The collapse of that system in 1991 forced a pivot: develop synthesis lines (adamantine, quinuclidinone derivatives) for Western markets instead.
Privatization came in 1997. The plant became Olainfarm, listed on the Riga Stock Exchange. Today JSC Olpha (renamed 2024) is the leading chemical-pharmaceutical manufacturer in the Baltic states. Latvia's industry reached €770 million in 2021; the government designated it a priority sector in 2019.
Olaine sits on the Riga-Jelgava railway, a Riga suburb that exists because central planning put a factory here. By 2026, the question is whether Latvia's pharmaceutical sector can compete with global manufacturers or whether Soviet-era infrastructure becomes liability rather than asset.