Wyeth BioPharma Campus a tonic for ailing economy

There's no sign of an economic slowdown at the Grange Castle International Business Park in Clondalkin, where the world's largest biopharmaceutical campus is being built.

The billion-dollar Wyeth BioPharma Campus is set to house 1,300 employees by 2007 and recruitment, which has already begun, will be ongoing until then.

Even while still in the construction phase, the project is bucking the general employment trend: when Intel's Fab 24 construction was put on hold earlier this year, many of the building workers who had been involved in that development moved on to the Wyeth campus almost immediately. More than 1,400 people are still building at Grange Castle, with this number set to rise above 2,000 at the peak of construction.

Wyeth human resource director Mr Larry Kelly is also a former Intel employee, having been hired from the US giant a short time ago. He was happy to make the move, having been involved with Intel since its Irish start-up in 1989 and subsequently seeing the company hit harder times.

In Wyeth, he says, the outlook is as sunny as can be. "It's a different atmosphere. It's different when you're growing. The work's hard but we're focusing on growth and on getting up and running, rather than keeping things going."

The biopharma recruitment process is very different from IT staffing, says Mr Kelly, mainly because of its phased nature, whereby different stages of development need specific regulatory approvals. In other aspects, however, Wyeth, in its current phase, is similar to Intel's early days, when Irish graduates who had emigrated were tempted back by new opportunities at home, he says.

"It reminds me of the IT sector in 1989 when Intel was talking to people. From what I hear, considerable numbers of Irish people with pharmaceutical qualifications in the past would have emigrated to the UK, the US and Germany."

The Wyeth campus, when complete, will span more than 90 acres and several different buildings.

"The people working here will be 60 or 70 per cent from graduate backgrounds. It'll be a place where people have a buzz about work," says Mr Kelly.

The new facility will manufacture a range of healthcare products for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, pneumonia in young children and spinal or facial injuries.

The emphasis will be on manufacturing and output rather than on research but there will be few opportunities for unskilled workers, says Mr Kelly. He predicts, however, the company will invest in upskilling staff - a policy that could be applied to IT workers hoping to make a change into a new area.

Forty people are already on board at the facility. Of these, 25 graduates are currently engaged in a two-year training period in the US, an experience that Mr Kelly expects to be available to a large number of staff.