Our Story

The company originally also produced medicinal product-eCG and medicinal products for human use, such as erythropoetin (EPO), and medicinal products for clinical use, all on a contract basis.

The expertise of the company centres around protein-based pharmaceutical purification and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) methods of production. Isteka also provides diagnostic kits for export.

In recent years we have remodeled and enlarged our facilities, laboratories and factory space centering our efforts on the API production of eCG which is now the main activity at Isteka.

Blood collection from Icelandic mares for eCG production started in the very late seventies of the last century and has been conducted ever since, for more than 40 years. It is now a very well-established farming practice. It is a side kick to the foal meat production of the horse farmer and originally the blood was exported raw for processing abroad.

The factory that Ísteka still uses, although very much changed, remodeled, and updated, was established in 1985. Currently Ísteka uses state of the art methods to produce from the blood a high value medicinal substance, an active pharmaceutical ingredient, for a variety of fertility medicines.

Ísteka is an equal opportunity employer. Fifty two percent of our team are women, 33% of our board of directors are women and 60% of our upper management. We employ a diverse team of varying nationalities. Fifty percent of our team members have a university degree ranging from BSc to Ph.D. degrees.
Statistics from September 2023.

We apply cutting edge technology in protein purification with lyophilization through our expert staff. In the year 2022 we generated USD 13 million in revenue and have substantial potential for future growth in our current settings.