Pfizer €1bn expansion at Grange Castle would bring hundreds of high-level jobs

Pfizer’s expected $1 billion (€1.01 billion) investment in its Grange Castle facilities is a boost for a plant that lost out on a €400 million upgrade several years ago when the drug it was designed to produce failed a late-stage trial.

It will also involve the creation of hundreds of very high-level biologics manufacturing jobs at the site.

Failure of the company’s cholesterol drug candidate, bococizumab, came after planning permission had already been secured for expansion of the site. New technologies available at the Dublin site since then are seen as critical in any new investment.

Active ingredient

The plant was one of the first Pfizer plants to produce mRNA drug substance, the essential active ingredient for the company’s Covid vaccine last year. That mRNA technology is a key element of several drugs in the Pfizer pipeline, including a flu vaccine on which the company announced last month it was starting a late-stage clinical trial.

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The mRNA capability could give Dublin a head start over rival locations for a number of drugs Pfizer is developing.

The US drug giant is said to be at the advanced stages of plans for the expansion of Grange Castle in what would be the largest single investment in the pharmaceutical sector in the history of the State and likely behind only Intel’s Leixlip plant overall, the Business Post has reported.

A spokeswoman for the company would not comment beyond saying that “Pfizer is constantly assessing our manufacturing network to ensure we can continue to bring our breakthroughs to patients.”

Drug pipeline

Any final decision will be determined by progress in the company’s drug pipeline. Pfizer has just over 100 different medicines in development. Of these, about two-thirds are entirely new drugs, with the balance comprising existing drugs in its portfolio being tried out as therapies for new conditions.

However, it will likely be 2027 before any new development at the Dublin site would be up and running, given the need for planning, tender, construction and subsequent regulatory approval before it could go live.

Pfizer currently has 39 manufacturing sites globally. However, only eight or nine of these, including Grange Castle, are capable of delivering cutting-edge biopharmaceuticals. The Dublin plant is already among the largest of these.

Pfizer has invested about €1 billion in its Irish portfolio of sites over recent years, including the $40 million mRNA line investment in Grange Castle, bringing its investment to date in the State to about $9 billion. The company now employs 5,000 staff in its Irish business.