Pfizer to invest $200m in Irish biomanufacturing plant
pharmafile | September 21, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Ireland, Pfizer, pharma manufacturing news
Pfizer is planning to invest around €145 million ($200m) at its biomanufacturing facility in Co Dublin, Ireland, according to the country’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
The investment at the Grange Castle site in Clondalkin will be used to introduce two new processing suites to the site and expand current production and product testing capabilities.
Up to 400 construction jobs will be created during the building phase, but there has as yet been no word on whether the investment will add to the tally of 1,100 workers currently employed by Pfizer at the facility.
Earlier this year Pfizer announced it was seeking voluntary redundancies at the former Wyeth facility, which is used to manufacture the pneumococcal disease vaccine Prevnar and arthritis and psoriasis therapy Enbrel (etanercept). At the time it said it was planning a refit of the facility in the coming couple of years.
“Pfizer has a long record of successfully manufacturing some of our top medicines in Ireland”, said Paul Duffy, vice president external Supply, at Pfizer. “This investment will allow us help meet the needs of patients throughout the world by introducing new technologies and capabilities at Grange Castle, where we produce highly complex vaccines and biologic products for patients around the world.”
Kenny said Pfizer makes “a tremendous contribution to Ireland’s life sciences industry since it first established here in 1969 and this investment is a further demonstration of the company’s continuous commitment”.
Pfizer has already invested more than $7 billion in its Irish operations, according to IDA Ireland. In March the company sold off a biologics fill-and-finish facility in Dun Laoghaire to biotechnology giant Amgen, saving 280 jobs, following that up by off-loading a bulk biologics manufacturing plant in Shanbally, Cork, to BioMarin.
A third Irish facility in Loughbeg manufacturing solid dose pharmaceuticals is still on the block.
Phil Taylor
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