Novartis sells Ringaskiddy site to contract manufacturer Sterling

Novartis, the Swiss pharma group, has sold its major drug ingredient plant in Ireland.

The company announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to sell the plant in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, to UK-based contract pharma manufacturer Sterling Pharma Solutions. No financial details were disclosed.

Novartis said in a statement that the move was "a continuation of the site's transformation journey to support a more sustainable future". Novartis has been battling with excess capacity at Ringaskiddy for a number of years, not least as, in the words of chief executive Vasant Narashimhan, it evolves from high-volume products, such as those produced at Ringaskiddy, to more specialised gene therapies and modern biologic drugs.

The Swiss company said the agreement with Sterling would “secure the continued manufacturing of medicines and significant expertise in Ringaskiddy”.

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Employees transfer

The 250 remaining Novartis employees will transfer to Sterling, the Swiss company said in a statement. Novartis employed 550 people in the business as recently as 2019.

Novartis said it would be keeping its integrated services division, which separately employs about 150 people in Ringaskiddy on most recent available figures, on site.

Novartis says the deal, which is likely to close in the final quarter of the year, includes provision for Sterling, which already operates four plants in the UK and the United States, to continue to supply the Swiss group from Ringaskiddy.

The site manufactures ingredients for a range of oncology, respiratory cardiovascular, dermatology, central nervous systems and transplantation medicines.

The Ringaskiddy site, which first opened in 1994, comprises three active pharmaceutical ingredient buildings on a 111-acre site, although one of these has been mothballed as part of the most recent plant consolidation. The companies said there was potential for on-site expansion.

Kevin Cook, Sterling's chief executive, said the addition of the "world-class facility" and its highly-skilled workforce would enable his company to "provide expanded capacity to our customers".

“The site at Ringaskiddy has a number of synergies with our current global facilities enabling us to continue our growth strategy in the small molecule market, as well as extending our capabilities in several key technological areas such as peptide manufacturing and large-scale chromatography,” he said.