Servier picks Ireland to expand manufacturing
manufacturing facility and also the expansion of its existing
operation in Ireland, an investment totalling €184m.
The company, which focuses on the development of cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and central nervous system drugs, said it is investing €115m to create a bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients facility in Belview, Kilkenny, a key strategic site developed by IDA Ireland to attract multinational pharmaceutical companies to the south-east region.
This will be the first company for the IDA Belview Site which is located on the border of Kilkenny and Waterford.
The new facility will manufacture half the active ingredients for four of the company's products used in the treatment of osteoporosis, depression, angina and hypertension.
It will also act as a strategic back-up facility to the main plant in France and a new product launch site where Servier plans to manufacture 50 per cent of all new products emerging from R&D, the company said.
Servier said it chose to expand in Ireland because of the performance of its existing Arklow plant and the support of the Irish government for innovation.
"Our decision to choose Ireland was made following careful appraisal of all our options for this investment," said a Servier spokesperson.
"We know that we can find the necessary life sciences capabilities and skills we need in Ireland."
Ireland is a key global location for the pharmaceutical industry, according to a recent analyst report. Currently thirteen of the top fifteen companies in the world have substantial operations in Ireland.
Furthermore, the sector has become increasingly integrated in recent years and the early investment in fine chemical plants producing bulk active materials has been followed by investment in finished product pharmaceuticals. Many plants are now engaged in product development for Irish and other plants.
Servier said that the new facility will be key in its future global operations and will be further integrated with the company's global activities as a result.
In addition, the company is to invest €69m to expand its existing facility in Arklow in order to increase its production of existing products for hypertension, angina and Type II diabetes.
The expansion will also allow the firm to introduce three new pharmaceutical products.
At present the group has 27 drugs in development, 14 in preclinical and 13 in clinical development, which includes 6 in Phase III and all products sold by the group are developed in-house.
