Global biopharmaceutical company AbbVie is significantly invested in Sligo both in terms of its manufacturing investments and its contribution to the local community. The company has had a presence in Sligo since the 1970s and has two plants in the town, one in Ballytivnan and the other on the Manorhamilton Road.
Following its separation from Abbott in 2013, AbbVie made a series of sizeable contributions at the Ballytivnan facility, including a €40 million investment and a €113 million sterile manufacturing technology expansion to support the company’s oncology pipeline. AbbVie now employs more than 500 people across its two Sligo facilities.
Michael Gallagher, site director at the Ballytivnan facility, speaks highly of the region’s workforce talent and capability, as well as the opportunities provided by the company. “There is incredible talent and biopharmaceutical expertise in the northwest, and it’s fantastic that AbbVie continues to create high-quality career opportunities here in Sligo, as well as at our locations across Ireland and beyond. The recent investments in Sligo alongside the introduction of new cutting-edge technologies have also helped us further develop our employees and attract new skilled talent to the company.”
A Sligo native and University of Galway graduate, Gallagher previously worked in the pharma industry in Australia before moving back to Ireland to join AbbVie. Initially, he held a number of senior roles at the company’s Manorhamilton Road site before moving to the Ballytivnan facility in 2018 to help set up the site’s new biologics capability. He then moved to Belgium to head the company’s operations facility in Liege before returning to Sligo in 2021 to take on his current role.
According to Gallagher, AbbVie’s commitment to learning and leadership development is among the reasons the company has been recognised as one of Ireland’s best workplaces for the past 11 years by the Great Place to Work Institute. It has been a best workplace for women for the past six years and was also recently awarded a best internship trophy at the 2024 GradIreland Graduate Recruitment awards.
AbbVie’s commitment to science has seen the company create and nurture partnerships with local science educators, including ATU Sligo, to help expand the local pool of pharmaceutical-focused graduates, thus creating new opportunities for those living across the region. AbbVie also supports science education programmes in local communities to help encourage greater participation in life sciences among young students.
A number of these science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) focused initiatives promote science role models who currently work at AbbVie sites, including Sligo. The aim is to encourage greater student awareness of the rewarding opportunities that can be unlocked by those who study Stem subjects.
AbbVie is also a long-standing sponsor of the Sligo Science Festival. The company’s support of the annual event has helped the organisers undertake a range of initiatives including live events and Stem focused promotional engagements at a number of local schools.
Most recently, the company launched the AbbVie Stem Prize. The project was rolled out to national schools in Cork, Dublin, Sligo and Mayo earlier this year. The initiative offers participating schools the opportunity to win Stem related materials to the value of €30,000. Schools that enter are asked to demonstrate how they might use Stem to solve challenges in their communities. The winners of the inaugural prize will be announced in the coming weeks.
“Transforming science education in Ireland is one of our key corporate responsibility priorities,” says Gallagher. “Through our various science education initiatives, we aim to encourage better engagement in Stem related learning and strive to showcase the exciting and diverse educational and career opportunities available right here in Sligo.”
AbbVie employees are also encouraged and facilitated to give back to their local communities. “Community engagement is also an integral part of the company’s culture, with employees continually looking for ways to connect and give back through volunteering,” Gallagher adds. “A great example of this is our annual Week of Possibilities project.”
The award-winning Week of Possibilities initiative is the company’s signature annual volunteering and community support programme. In 2023, more than 1,100 employees from six AbbVie locations in Cork, Dublin, Sligo and Mayo contributed 3,635 volunteer hours to the project. During the most recent campaign, more than 250 AbbVie volunteers from the Sligo sites contributed more than 1,150 hours to revitalise the Avalon Centre in the heart of the town.
“We’re looking forward to collaborating with our Manorhamilton Road colleagues again later this month, as we take on our next challenge to transform the MCR Community Centre in Knocknaganny.” Gallagher adds.
AbbVie also has strong sporting links and sponsors by the Sligo Senior ladies’ intercounty GAA football team as well as the Sligo men’s senior and U-20 teams. This makes it the only multinational pharmaceutical company in Ireland to support an intercounty GAA team.
