Eli Lilly to invest €400m in Cork plant

American multinational pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly yesterday unveiled details of a €400 million investment, which will create 200 jobs in a new biopharmaceutical facility at its plant near Kinsale, Co Cork.

The jobs, which will come on stream over the next five years, will involve recruitment of third-level graduates, many with PhD qualifications, and will bring staff numbers at the plant at Dunderrow, Kinsale, to 600.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, welcomed the announcement and said the investment, supported by IDA Ireland, confirmed Ireland's growing importance as an international centre for biopharmaceutical development.

"This announcement further strengthens Ireland's, and in particular Cork's, position as the number one location of choice for major biopharmaceutical activity outside the US. It is a major achievement for IDA Ireland to have won this investment against intense global competition," said Mr Martin.

"This win for Ireland illustrates the fact that due to investments made by this Government in the biotechnology industry in recent years, we now have the infrastructure, the people and the skills to attract this type of investment.

"Eli Lilly's Irish operation is poised to become the centre of excellence in biopharmaceutical manufacturing technology, which will represent an increasing percentage of Lilly's medicines of the future," he said.

He added that it further strengthened Eli Lilly's commitment to Kinsale.

The decision by the company to locate a biopharmaceutical facility in Cork follows the decisions by fellow US multinationals, Centocor and Amgen, to locate biopharmaceutical plants in Ringaskiddy and Carrigtwohill, Co Cork, and Wyeth to locate a plant at Grange Castle in Dublin.

"There's a critical mass now developing in Ireland in terms of biopharmaceuticals - this is the sector we have been chasing and we're thrilled with the result - our big competitors are Puerto Rico and Singapore but I believe that we're ahead of them at the moment," said Mr Martin.

Eli Lilly has been established in Kinsale since 1981 and employs some 400 people in manufacturing the active ingredients for a number of the company's best known products, schizophrenia treatment, Zyprex, and osteoporosis treatment, Evista.

The new biopharmaceuticals facility in Dunderrow will use the latest technology to develop medical proteins to create medicines to treat illnesses including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Cork-born Eli Lilly vice-president of Global API Manufacturing, Dr Paul Ahern, said that the investment in Dunderrow was strategically important for the company as it seeks to expand its biotechnology sector, which currently accounts for 30 per cent of its business.

"This investment is part of Lilly's planned growth strategy and proof of our confidence in our future in the biotechnology sector. The decision to locate this facility on our existing site at Dunderrow owes a lot to the strong performance of the site to date, the access to top quality personnel and the support of IDA Ireland," he said.

Eli Lilly Dunderrow general manager Maria Crowe said the company's expansion plans were currently at the conceptual design stage but she expected that construction would commence in late 2007 or early 2008, with the new plant to come on stream by 2010.

Ms Crowe said the investment would mark a significant diversification at the Dunderrow site into a new technology platform that would allow the corporation develop a new generation of products for patients around the world.

"This is great news for the Kinsale plant - it underlines the confidence of the corporation in the capability and track record of our employees and will position the site very well for the future," said Ms Crowe.

Cork Chamber of Commerce chief executive Conor Healy welcomed the announcement and said that, taken with the decision by both Centocor and Amgen to locate in Ringaskiddy and Carrigtwohill, it confirmed Cork as a leading centre for biotechnology investment.