Wyeth opens Dublin drug discovery research facility
Facility in Dublin in a move that adds to Wyeth Grange Castle
Campus in Ireland's capital and reinforces the growth of Ireland's
biotechnology research and industrial base.
The facility adds to a burgeoning platform of companies. Ireland can boast over 170 businesses employing 35,000 people in the pharmaceutical/ chemical, biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics sectors.
In addition, it is the European home to such household names as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Wyeth, Schering Plough, Bristol Meyers Squibb and Genzyme.
Located at the Conway Institute in University College Dublin the facility will comprise 12 research scientists, and will be located within the Discovery Unit, which is directed toward new chemical and biological entities.
The Development Unit's activities will concentrate on three distinct product families - antibodies, fusion proteins and native biologics. Wyeth said the results of Wyeth Research Ireland's work would feed into the Wyeth Grange Castle Campus fully integrating the unit from discovery through development to full-scale manufacture.
"This investment is exactly what the Government's policy and IDA Ireland's strategy in Research and Development is aiming to achieve in the Biopharmaceutical sector," said Micheál Martin TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Ireland has beocme a favourite of the pharmaceutical company with the formation of a four-year research project with Dublin University aimed at improved the efficiency of biologics production, earlier this year.
Added to the investment of nearly $2 billion in the Grange Castle facility, where site development work began in October 2002, the firm has invested heavily in the last few years to become one of the largest global biotech companies with the aim of combining a biotech culture with the resources and global reach of a large pharmaceutical company.
"We see this as an opportunity for UCD Conway Institute and critical to our plans for the development of the National Institute of Bioprocess Research and Training (NIBRT)," said Professor Catherine Godson, UCD, vice-president for Innovation and Corporate Partnerships.
"The founding principle of the UCD Conway Institute was to support the development of the pharma industry in Ireland. The arrival of Wyeth on the Belfield campus builds on our existing successful relationships and I hope, is a precursor to much bigger collaborations," she added.
Biotech drugs are a rapidly growing segment of Wyeth. With more than $17.4 billion in revenue this includes such innovative products as the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel (etanercept), ReFacto (antihemophilic factor, recombinant), BeneFix (coagulation Factor IX, recombinant) and Prevenar, its pneumococcal vaccine for children.
Martin's comments echo similar sentiments made by Michael Ahern TD, Minister for Trade and Commerce, in June.
Visiting BIO 2005 Convention in the Pennsylvania Convention Centre in Philadelphia, Ahern said: "The Irish Government is committed to a pro-business, pro-science environment to transform Irish industry."
"It is making an unprecedented level of investment in science and technology to create a vibrant and well-supported biotech research community, giving a substantial resource for technology solutions and the basis for a stream of technology-based start-ups."
He added that Ireland is now one of the world's largest exporters of pharmaceuticals with annual exports of intermediates and finished pharmaceuticals worth over €34 billion and with six out of ten of the world's top selling drugs produced in Ireland.
