Pharmaceuticals company Pfizer Ireland will decide this autumn whether to proceed with a €175 million biologics facility that would create between 70 and 100 jobs in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.
A Pfizer Ireland spokeswoman welcomed the recent decision by Cork County Council to grant planning permission for the facility. She said the next step for the company was to forward the plan to Pfizer for capital projects approval in September or October. If approved, it is expected that construction will begin immediately, with the facility expected to be completed and commissioned by early 2009.
The Pfizer spokeswoman explained that applying to the council for planning permission was part of the company's procedure before the firm took a final decision on whether to proceed with the unit. The facility is planned for the site of the former ADM plant in Cork which is adjacent to Pfizer's headquarters in Shanbally, Ringaskiddy.
It is understood Pfizer bought the site from ADM last year for €25 million.
Biologics are therapies based on living cells as opposed to traditional pharmaceuticals, which are composed of chemicals.
As a result, biologics must be manufactured in highly specialised plants that adhere to strict manufacturing processes.
Pfizer has 99 products in the pipeline, including more than a dozen biologic products in the second and third phases of human medical trials which could be destined for the Shanbally facility.
The Pfizer spokeswoman was unable to comment in detail on the company's plans, but she confirmed that the potential biologic treatments produced by the firm would be "in the oncology and chronic pain therapy areas."
The proposed biologics facility comprises a three-storey manufacturing building with a penthouse plant room on the third floor, a two-storey administration/laboratory wing and warehouse wing.
The development would also see 187 more staff car parking spaces and 14 visitor parking spaces, as well an internal ring road, a sewage treatment unit and general landscaping works.
Meanwhile, the Pfizer spokeswoman confirmed international consultants Pricewaterhouse- Coopers were managing the sale of two Pfizer plants in Loughbeg near Ringaskiddy and Little Island.
Last February site leader at the Ringaskiddy plant, Dr Paul Duffy said the company planned to sell one of its two plants at Loughbeg, employing 300 people, in 2008, while it planned to sell part of its plant at Little Island, employing 180, in 2009.
The company employs some 2,300 people in Ireland.