120 jobs come on stream at Genzyme

WATERFORD-based biotechnology company Genzyme is to provide 120 jobs by the end of next year.

The latest recruitment drive will bring to just under 400 the numbers employed there and is part of a €125 million expansion officially opened yesterday by Tánaiste Mary Harney.

The new ‘biologics fill and finish facility’ will manufacture a range of biological products for the global healthcare market. The company has already invested €200m at its plant on the IDA estate in the city.

The investment will make the Waterford plant the company’s major European production and distribution hub. Waterford is already the primary tableting and bottling centre for Renagel, a drug used by patients with chronic kidney disease.

Launching the facility and the new recruitment drive, the Tánaiste said the investment in biotechnology and in Waterford is particularly good news for the region.

“Biotechnology is one of the new, dynamic industries producing products for the healthcare industry. This expansion will be very central to Genzyme’s world supply of products. Waterford is doing extraordinarily well with 75% of its employees having a third-level education.

“It augurs well for Waterford and the surrounding area and is a terrific boost for those in college in the area. They know that there’s a leading science company at the cutting edge of technology on their doorstep, offering high quality employment,” she said.

Genzyme chairman and chief executive, Henri A Termeer, said the Waterford operation had been a leader, spurred on by the high level of education and expertise of its local staff.

“What we do in Waterford stands in very high regard in the corporation. All of our ideas have come to fruition and this base has delivered very strong results for the company,” he said.

Genzyme currently employs 252 staff in Waterford and expects to add the additional 120 posts by the end of 2006, in line with its multi-phased plans for the Waterford site.