Over 200 jobs will be lost with the closure of the Aventis pharmaceutical factory in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, the company confirmed today.
Workers at the plant were told at a meeting with management this morning the plant will shut in July.
The decision to close was taken after a review of global manufacturing capacity by Aventis, one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies.
Orders at the Nenagh plant have dwindled in recent months. Six weeks ago, the "liquids" part of the Nenagh plant, which produced the stomach drug Maalox, was moved to another European plalnt.
Aventis Pharma employs nearly 500 people throughout the State. The main Aventis Pharma office in the Republic is at Citywest in Dublin, with production facilities in Nenagh, where the company employs 230 people, and Waterford, where it has 160 employees.