Bioniche insists Inverin closure is ‘not an option’

CANADIAN life sciences company Bioniche has ruled out job losses at its facility in Galway, despite putting it up for sale last week, and is poised to make a fresh investment in Ireland next year, it emerged over the weekend.

The company’s chief executive said that Bioniche was exiting its Irish investment to free up cash for its core businesses at home, but it would not close its Inverin plant which manufactures sterile injectable products and employs 120 people, if a buyer could not be found.

Graeme McRae told the Irish Examiner that the Inverin plant had gone through ‘a bad year’ but that recent investments in the facility meant it was a ‘wonderful buying opportunity’ for the right partner.

Bioniche invested around €11m in the plant last year to increase its capacity by 500% and is already in talks with potential buyers. But Mr McRae said Bioniche would be happy to continue running the plant if it failed to get the right price.

“Closure is not an option,” he said. He declined to put a value on the business.

Mr McRae also said the company was working on other projects that could see it return to Ireland within 12 months. It hopes to set up a new manufacturing facility here as a European base for the manufacture of a vaccine against the e-coli virus.

He added that the e-coli project would be well suited to Ireland. He praised Údarás na Gaeltachta, which contributed €2m to the Inverin plant, and said it had a strong relationship with the authority.

He said that Ireland was a ‘very competitive’ location with a high quality labour force and that cost and exchange rate pressures had not been factors in the decision to sell.