The 70,000 square-foot Dundalk facility – located between Dublin and Belfast – will offer qualified person (QP) release, analytical testing and distribution services.
The site will also provide primary and secondary pharmaceutical packaging services, including blister packing and container filling.
The UK-headquartered firm said the project is supported by IDA Ireland (previously the Industrial Development Authority), and would create more than 300 jobs over five years.
Ireland’s Minister for State for Employment and Small Business Pat Breen said the site’s location responds to a government push to disperse job allocation across the Green Isle.
“The government has been driving job creation in locations which are away from the bigger cities, and this new operation in Dundalk is a great vindication of that policy,” he said at the site announcement.
A European link
Wasdell’s managing director Martin Tedham said the new facility could help firms continue to serve European customers.
“We have always had a strong customer base in Ireland and we are certain that this trend will continue with the impending Brexit situation as companies typically from the UK and the USA look to securing a base to service their European markets,” he said in a statement.
The facility also represents an “example of the type of Brexit linked opportunity IDA Ireland is working hard to secure,” said the government agency’s CEO Martin Shanahan.
Wasdell will be looking to fill positions in management, QA/QC, laboratory, engineering and maintenance, production operatives, warehouse, finance and administration, health and safety, and human resources.