The pharmaceutical manufacturer Elan is to develop the former GSI plant in Macroom, Co Cork, at a cost of $60 million over the next five years, creating up to 300 new high-technology jobs, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has announced.
The investment in the Co Cork facility follows Elan's earlier announcement of a $250 million investment in its Athlone plant, but the specialised nature of the products which will be produced in Cork means that not many of the 670 GSI workers who were made redundant last August will be employed there.
Up to 60 per cent of the new workforce will be recruited from third-level institutions or existing companies in the sector.
Nevertheless, news that a replacement industry has been found will be of major significance to Macroom and its immediate hinterland, which has been badly affected by the huge loss of spending power in the region, valued at more than €40 million annually.
The latest announcement was a reminder that the economy remained sound and the international economic climate was improving, Mr Ahern, speaking in Macroom yesterday, said.
The GSI general manager, Mr Steve Cowman, remained in Macroom after the closure and worked closely with the taskforce, led by Cork County Manager Mr Maurice Moloney, which was established to identify replacement jobs. Elan's decision to locate in Macroom was "a great outcome" for their efforts, Mr Ahern said, and was a vote of confidence in the town.
Despite his upbeat mood and an enthusiastic crowd which gathered to welcome him, Mr Ahern remained tight-lipped about the election date, reminding reporters that there were 31 days in May.
The new plant, which will be operational in the first quarter of 2005, will produce Antegren, a drug now in the third phase of clinical trials, developed for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease by Elan and its partner, Biogen. If the drug is successful, it will make Elan a major player in the worldwide biopharmaceutical market, expected to increase by a factor of 50 over the next decade to $230 billion.
Mr Donal Geaney, Elan's chief executive, said yesterday that he believed biotechnology was still in the growth phase of its industrial life-cycle and was a rapidly evolving science which had already led to "a richer and more robust drug pipeline," than at any time in the industry's history.