Waterford gets boost as 165 jobs created

WATERFORD received a much-needed employment boost yesterday when a pharmaceuticals company announced it will be creating 165 jobs over the next five years.

The €65 million investment is being made by IVAX Pharmaceuticals Ireland, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd at its facility in Waterford.

Teva has three pharmaceutical plants and a research and development facility on its Waterford campus, which employs 650 people.

The expansion has been grant-aided by the inward investment promotion agency, IDA Ireland.

In addition to its three manufacturing plants, the Waterford campus also includes a research and development facility with some 70 staff, most of whom work on the development of respiratory products for the treatment of respiratory diseases.

The investment by the parent company will allow its Waterford-based operation to more than double both its inhaler and tablet manufacturing capacity and will confirm Waterford as the primary strategic location within the Teva Group for the manufacture of products for the relief and prevention of asthma.

The products made in Waterford are exported worldwide and the new investment will enable the Irish facility to continue as an important supplier of tablets and capsules for the US market, according to general manager Tom McCabe.

“The investment is necessary to meet increasing demand for both solid dosage forms and respiratory products such as ProAirTM particularly in the US,” said Mr McCabe.

“We are expanding into a neighbouring building we purchased a number of years ago, so the project is akin to building a new factory.”

The Waterford facilities, when expanded, will extend to almost 500,000 square feet.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd acquired the IVAX Waterford business as part of its acquisition of the IVAX Corporation in January 2006.

SIPTU welcomed yesterday’s announcement, with branch organiser Marie Butler describing IVAX’s decision as “a real vote of confidence in the skills and commitment of the existing workforce”.

The new jobs will give a “much-needed boost” to the labour force in Waterford, Ms Butler said.

“As IVAX Pharmaceuticals is a highly unionised plant, their expansion plans dispel the myth that unions are anathema to business. It proves that management and unions can work well together.”

Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin welcomed Teva Pharmaceuticals’ “commitment to its Irish subsidiary, local workforce and the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland”.

Social Affairs Minister and local TD Martin Cullen welcomed the investment.

He said it was “a strong vote of confidence in the skill and competence of the management and workers led by Tom McCabe, general manager, and on Waterford itself”.