MSD invests €100m in Irish drug making arm
South Tipperary, Ireland to build a new formulation R&D centre
and drug manufacturing plant.
MSD, part of the drug giant Merck & Co, said it will establish the new facilities at its existing location in Ballydine, in the process creating 120 new positions over the next three years, including 60 R&D positions.
The new R&D centre will develop "innovative platforms" for the formulation of products used in late stage clinical trials and the new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility will enable the Ballydine plant to produce tablets and capsules for a number of new products in late stage clinical trials and for new products launched on the market.
MSD has operated a large-scale plant producing active pharmaceutical ingredients, which now employs 340 people, at the Ballydine site since 1976 and the firm also now has a second Irish site in Dublin dedicated to clinical research, regulatory affairs, marketing and sales.
"We have had great success with our MSD facility in South Tipperary over the last 30 years, and we are pleased this new investment will bring a totally new business in finished product production and significantly increase the overall level of research and development conducted at the site," Dr Michael Thien, vice president of Global Pharmaceutical Commercialisation for Merck & Co.
Dr Thien said that the company's decision to expand at the Irish site in particular was based on a number of factors such as support from the Irish Government, the availability of skills in the industry necessary for an operation of this level as well as a supportive business environment.
The Irish government recently introduced a €3.8bn initiative in order to double the number of PhD graduates in order to breathe new life into the country's science and technology industries and so Merck's announcement was greatly welcomed by Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Micheál Martin.
"The number of high-level positions which will be created reflects the significant scale of the R&D investment," he said.
"When a company like Merck chooses its Irish-based subsidiary for these key activities, it is a strong endorsement of Ireland's reputation as a leading global location for life sciences companies carrying out high level research and development."
This latest announcement from Merck comes only three months after the company also splashed out $100m (€80m) to expand its manufacturing plant in Singapore, adding formulation facilities and support infrastructure as well as increased capacity and production capability and bringing its investment in this budding region to over S$1bn (€0.5bn).
