Drug giant says €150m plant is on target

A PHARMACEUTICALS multinational, which is developing a new €150 million plant in Waterford city, said yesterday its project is well on track and it could not have picked a more suitable location for the development.

The Genzyme Corporation said yesterday that its pharmaceutical-biotechnology facility in Waterford is close to completion and on target to be in commercial manufacture before the end of the year.

The new plant is part of a multi-phased manufacturing development, which has the potential to create hundreds of jobs in Waterford over the next five years.

The Genzyme Corporation, with its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the US, is one of the largest independent pharmaceutical-biotechnology companies in the world and employs over 5,300 people worldwide.

It’s hard to believe that within nine months, the company has gone from employing its first member of staff to being ready to begin work, chairman and CEO, Henri Termeer, said yesterday at a ceremony to mark the unveiling of the foundation stone.

The first phase of the development sees the transformation of the former Bausch & Lomb Ray-Ban plant into a state of the art pharmaceutical manufacturing facility for the production of Renagel tablets.

This is a product used in the treatment of patients with kidney disease who are on dialysis, said vice president and general manager of Genzyme Ireland, Dominic Carolan. “In addition to tablet manufacture, we are also undertaking construction of a biological fill and finish operation.”

Planning permission was granted recently to start this second phase of development at the site with the creation of an 80,000 square foot facility for the formulation and filling of biological proteins and enzymes.

“Construction has commenced and we expect that it will be completed before the end of 2003, with approval for commercial manufacture anticipated in 2005.”

Mr Carolan added that the company was on schedule to meet all of its targets this year.

“Thanks to the excellence of our project teams and the dedication of our construction personnel, we will be in a position to be able to supply Renagel tablets for our patients before the end of the year.

“We already have over 50 excellently qualified and motivated Genzyme Ireland personnel ready to commence plant operations.”