300 jobs in South and Dublin
The announcement was made yesterday by Opko Health Inc, owners of EirGen Pharma, which is establishing a new product development centre at an IDA-built advance technology building (ATB) at Waterford Business and Technology Park.
The Waterford ATB is one of 11 around the country which are part of the government’s regional jobs plan.
Phillip Frost, the MD, chairman, and CEO of Opko Health said the investment “underpins” the company’s strategy to establish Ireland as a centre of excellence for its R&D and supply chain activities.
“We appreciate IDA’s efforts to create an attractive business environment for companies like ours, and we look forward to expanding our workforce by drawing upon the region’s highly skilled labour pool,” he said.
IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said the expansion by EirGen would “add significantly” to the growing life-sciences “cluster” in the South-East.
Planned growth in Waterford over the next five years involves the expansion of EirGen’s existing manufacturing facility in Westside Business Park and the establishment of the R&D Centre with manufacturing capabilities for new sterile fill finish and dry powder inhalation products.
Separately, a digital marketing company will create 100 jobs with the opening of new offices in Dublin.
Search Optics said the roles will be based at its new European, Middle Eastern, and African headquarters at Fumbally Square in the city.
The jobs are to be created over the next two years.
Brendan O’Brien, of Search Optics, said Dublin is a diverse, vibrant city that offers the firm access to highly-skilled staff and a technology infrastructure that will serve as the perfect base.
“We have experienced excellent support from government business development departments as well as from local businesses and suppliers, which means that setting up our HQ has been straightforward and without delay,” he said.
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