French pharmaceuticals company Servier has announced a €185-million expansion that will create 267 jobs in counties Wicklow and Kilkenny.
Micheál Martin
The company will spend €70 million on expanding the capacity of its Arklow plant, which produces 15 medicines for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression. Some 112 jobs will be created.
Servier, which has an annual turnover of €3.2 billion, established a plant in Arklow in November 1989. The plant, which employs 206 people, supplies medicines for the company's Canadian, European, South African and Australian markets.
Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin also announced the expansion at the Belview site, a new industrial zone on the border between Kilkenny and Waterford, where Servier will build a plant at a cost of €45 million and create 155 jobs.
The factory will produce active pharmaceutical ingredients for three new Servier products: Ivabradine (whose market name is Procoralan), which regulates heart rhythm; the anti-depressant Agomelatine (Valdoxan) and Terutroban, which protects the walls of the arteries.
Thirteen of the world's top 15 pharmaceutical companies have substantial operations in Ireland. There are 83 foreign-owned pharmaceutical facilities in Ireland. The sector employs 17,000 people and had a production value of €34 billion in 2002.
Mr Martin said: "Servier is a global company with an excellent reputation for its commitment to research and development, reinvesting 25 per cent of its annual turnover in R&D."
A Servier spokesman said: "This investment is a major part of Servier's strategy for the future growth of its worldwide business. . . . We know that we can find the necessary life sciences capabilities and skills we need in Ireland."