Pharmaceutical centre announces 282 new jobs for Tralee

Three international pharmaceutical organisations have announced almost 300 new jobs for Co Kerry, as part of a proposed Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence in Tralee.

The GPCE is a €4.7bn project aimed at establishing a campus of more than 50 different small to medium sized pharmaceutical interests in the town.

The 282 new jobs announced today by the International Prevention Research Institute (iPRI), Global Research Services (GRS) and Optivia Biotechnology are primarily research and development roles and will come on stream over the next 15 months. Recruitment is expected to begin in May.

The promoters of the centre believe it has the potential to employ over 4,500 people in the next four years.

"We’re delighted to see this first announcement of jobs by three well-respected organisations, part of on-going development of the Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence. We promised we’d deliver 300 jobs in the first phase, so this is a very good milestone," said Rory Doyle, Chief Executive of the proposed centre, and a senior executive with Pharmadel, the Cork-based generic drug firm.