Pfizer pledges €300m to create 300 jobs in Cork, Dublin, and Kildare  

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Dr. Paul Duffy, vice president, Pfizer Global Supply. File picture: Julien Behal Photography

US drugs giant Pfizer has pledged it will invest €300m in its Irish operations, supporting the development of its existing manufacturing site in Ringaskiddy, alongside sites in Dublin and Kildare, to bring its workforce in Ireland to 4,000 people.

The investment will provide additional manufacturing and laboratory capacity creating approximately 300 jobs over the next two to three years.

Additional construction jobs are anticipated for the Ringaskiddy site.

The new jobs include analysts, technicians, engineers, scientists, technologists, quality specialists, data analysts, and chemists.

Part of the investment will also include the initial stage of a project to construct a development facility on the Ringaskiddy site to manufacture pharmaceutical compounds for Pfizer’s clinical trials globally.

This will expand Pfizer’s role in Ireland from manufacturing already approved medicines to supporting early-phase developments of new medicines.

The investment and the new jobs will secure Pfizer’s status as one of the largest private-sector employers in Ireland.

Although not directly linked to the race by multiple drug firms around the world to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, the investment is another sign of the global expansion in healthcare that the pandemic has hastened, to the benefit of Ireland.

Ireland plays hosts to almost all the leading US pharmaceutical giants.

It is also welcome news for the Government’s IDA which has been faced with a slowing pipeline of large investments from US companies even before the onset of the Covid-19 global economic crisis.

Despite some setbacks with the loss of jobs by some drug giants, pharma has been a significant bright spot in recent years for the Irish economy.

This year, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and other multinationals have played an outsized role through the corporation tax they pay in helping to shore up the Government’s finances, which have slumped deep into the red amid the Covid economic crisis.

The Government collected almost €7.47bn in corporation tax revenue — some €2.3bn more than anticipated — in the first nine months of the year. Economists say the tax inflows were likely driven by pharma and medical-device makers.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Pfizer investment was “a very welcome boost to the economy”, with Pfizer making “a significant contribution”.

The investment will further boost the country’s position in biopharmaceuticals, said IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan.

Paul Duffy, vice president at Pfizer Global Supply, said the investment will strengthen the group’s Irish operations, bringing the total headcount in Ireland to 4,000.

“It is also particularly exciting that our Ringaskiddy site has been chosen as the location to manufacture investigational compounds for our clinical trials globally and we look forward to seeing that new facility become operational,” he said.

Paul Reid, country manager at Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, said the manufacturer’s current focus is on its Covid-19 efforts, including their vaccine development programme.

Last month, Mr Reid said Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech could issue 100m doses of their experimental Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year.

• Additional reporting Eamon Quinn