AMGEN, THE world’s largest biotechnology company, is in advanced talks to acquire a Dublin operation of rival Pfizer.
An announcement is expected within weeks. The Pottery Road plant in Dún Laoghaire had been scheduled to close with the loss of 210 jobs. Many of those staff will now transfer to Amgen, although the precise number is not yet known.
The investment by Amgen will be welcomed by industrial support agencies, both for the jobs it protects and the fact that it brings the industry’s largest player to Ireland in a challenging economic environment.
“It was the one name in biotech/pharma that stood out by the fact that it had no presence here,” said one industry source yesterday.
Amgen specialises in developing drugs for cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis and bone disease. Its best-selling drug, the arthritis therapy Enbrel, last year recorded sales of $3.65 billion (€2.69 billion). The Fortune 500company last month reported total revenues of $15.05 billion and profit after tax of $4.63 billion for 2010. Amgen, which trades on the US Nasdaq index, has a market capitalisation of $49 billion.
Another biotech leader, Genzyme, was valued at $21 billion in a deal announced yesterday, which will see it being acquired by French pharma group Sanofi-Aventis.
Back in January 2006, California-based Amgen announced plans for a $1 billion investment in a fully integrated biologics plant on a 150-acre site outside Carrigtwohill in Co Cork.
It was hailed as a landmark investment. However, a slowdown in Amgen’s business worldwide saw the project delayed, initially for two years, and eventually cancelled.
While the Pfizer acquisition will be on a smaller scale than the original project, industry sources say it will be in a fast-growing area of Amgen’s business – sterile fill/finishing for biologic products. Pfizer has invested $240 million updating the plant, which has operated since 1970 under various owners.
But last year, after the company merged with Wyeth, it announced it intended to close the 17-acre Pottery Road facility with the loss of 210 jobs. The merger saw Pfizer concentrate its Irish biologics business at Wyeth’s major biotech operation at Grange Castle, west Dublin.
Another company, American Medical Systems (AMS), yesterday announced it was establishing a manufacturing base in Ireland, its first outside its US base.
The company, which makes medical devices, said it will create 50 jobs in Athlone under the €4.6 million investment supported by IDA Ireland. The Irish arm will manufacture continence products.
“This is the first manufacturing operation AMS has established outside of the US, and it is of significant strategic importance as the company grows its international presence,” said Thomas Rasmussen, vice-president of global operations and the supply chain.
