Pharma company to create 70 jobs

A PHARMACEUTICAL company is to create 70 jobs as part of a €28 million investment at its facilities in Co Cork.

The announcement was made yesterday by MSD at its plant in Brinny, near Innishannon, which is involved in the development and production of new drugs for the treatment of cancer, hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.

The investment is in two new facilities — a Bioassay Centre of Expertise and a Pneumococcal Vaccine Conjugation Facility.

The bioassay facility will measures the biological effect of a test substance on a living cell and is an essential for research and development in biologics manufacture.

The Pneumococcal Vaccine Conjugation Facility will produce vaccine for clinical trials in immunisation against pneumococcal disease for paediatric use.

It will have the capacity to produce 100 million doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine a year.

Details of the IDA-supported investment were revealed yesterday by Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock.

He said continuous innovation played a central role in Ireland’s future as a knowledge-based economy.

IDA chief executive officer Barry O’Leary said the investment demonstrated MSD’s continued commitment to Ireland and “adds to the strategic importance of the Irish operations within the parent company.”

MSD was created as a result of a merger between Schering-Plough and the pharmaceutical giant Merck.

The company is known as MSD worldwide, except in the US and Canada where it remains Merck.

“MSD in Ireland employs 2,300 people through our operations in Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Tipperary and Wicklow,” Merck’s senior vice president Dr Mike Kamarck said. “We have an excellent relationship with the IDA and we are grateful to the minister and the IDA for their ongoing support of MSD in Ireland.” PharmaChemical Ireland also welcomed the announcement.