Abbott plans €85m investment in Irish facility
pharmafile | February 13, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Abbott. IDA, Ireland, Xinlay
Abbott Laboratories has said it will invest around €85 million in its manufacturing facility in Sligo, Ireland, more than doubling staff there with the creation of 175 new pharmaceutical jobs.
The Irish Development Agency (IDA) said that the drugmaker is planning an expansion of its pharmaceutical operations in Sligo, which serves as a containment facility for the manufacture of a wide range of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). It currently employs around 125 workers.
Active ingredients currently made at the facility include those used in Xinlay (atrasentan) for prostate cancer, hyperparathyroidism treatment Zemplar (paricalcitol), Hytrin (terazosin HCl) for benign prostatic hyperplasia and antihypertensives Gopten (trandolapril) and Tarka (trandolapril plus verapamil).
The IDA said that the expansion – which should be completed in 2014 – will “provide additional space for manufacturing operations to support Abbott’s future pharmaceutical pipeline in the key therapeutic areas of virology, oncology and nephrology and provide additional capacity in Abbott’s global pharmaceutical manufacturing network.”
In addition to 175 positions in engineering, quality, pharmaceutical science and other skilled areas, the IDA said the project would also create around 150 short-term construction jobs.
Ireland’s Minister for Small Business, John Perry, said the announcement was “a huge boost for the region which like many others has suffered from the mistakes of recent years through a high unemployment rate”.
“This state-of-the-art expansion will enable us to produce innovative therapies that we expect will represent significant advances in the treatment of cancer, chronic kidney disease and viral infections,” said Dr. Azita Saleki-Gerhardt, Abbott’s president of global pharmaceutical operations.
“Sligo is an important part of Abbott’s pharmaceutical manufacturing network and we are pleased to expand it to support future production needs,” he noted.
Abbott has 13 manufacturing, commercial and shared services sites across Ireland, which together employ nearly 4,000 people.
Phil Taylor
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