Drugs giant MSD invests €29m to create 70 new jobs

PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT MSD (formerly Merck Sharpe Dohme) has invested almost €29 million in two new facilities in West Cork, creating 70 new jobs.

Formally opening the plant yesterday, Minister of State for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock paid tribute to the management and workforce of MSD at its plant in Brinny for securing the investment. “The harnessing of the skills and creativity of the people here at Brinny has been instrumental in the decision by MSD to base these two facilities here, representing a financial investment of €28.6 million and the provision of 70 jobs,” he said.

MSD Brinny general manager John Howell said: “As a site, we are continually focused on our costs and our operational excellence. The locating of these two facilities at Brinny underlines the strategic importance of this site within the MSD global network.”

MSD, known as Merck in the US and Canada, acquired the Brinny plant in 2009 when it merged with Schering Plough, which had operated at the West Cork site since 1980. The merged entity employs more than 500 people at the plant.

The facilities opened yesterday include the Brinny Bioassay Centre of Expertise, where 10 staff will be employed in measuring the biological effect of a test substance on a living cell. Also opened was the Brinny Pneumococcal Vaccine Conjugation Facility which will produce vaccines for clinical trials in immunisation against pneumococcal disease.

Some 60 staff will be employed initially in the production, commissioning, qualification and clinical supply phases of the vaccine. Brinny will have capacity to produce 100 million doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine a year.

MSD employs a total of 2,300 people in Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Tipperary and Wicklow.