Lilly invests further in Irish manufacturing
This article was originally published in Scrip
Ireland's export market, which anticipates taking a significant hit in the coming year as a number of pharmaceuticals manufactured on its shores come off patent, has had some good news. Lilly, which already has a significant manufacturing presence in the country, announced this week that it intends to invest €330 million in building a brand new facility at its Kinsale, Cork site.
The company told Scrip: "This facility will provide additional capacity for future biotech pipeline products. Lilly has more than 30 years of positive manufacturing experience at the Kinsale site. It has a breath of capabilities built up by its highly educated workforce and it is now one of the company's leading locations for the future commercialisation of both small and large pipeline molecules."
The new 240,000-square-foot plant will take around three years to build. When fully operational, it will employee up to 200 staff. In addition, a further 300 construction jobs will be created on the site during building works.
This is the second large investment Lilly has made at its Kinsale site in recent years. In 2006, the company announced a €300 million investment in its first biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility at Kinsale, which came on-stream in 2010.
Kinsale is the manufacturing centre for Lilly's best-selling antipsychotic Zyprexa (olanzapine), which lost patent exclusivity last year. The falling revenues from Zyprexa and other products as they navigate the patent cliff has been a concern not only for Lilly and its peers, but for the Irish manufacturing sector.
IDA, the Irish government's regional development agency, told Scrip that it was "aware of the products that its life science companies manufacture and the patent term of these products. Our job bas been to secure inward investment to help reduce the impact caused by some of these products coming off patent and as such we have positioned ourselves to attract biopharmaceutical investment".
It added: "Ireland has won an exceptional level of biopharma investment in recent years: 10 biopharma investments totalling €5 billion, and we expect more announcements in 2012."