IRELAND’S pharmaceutical industry needs to change and adapt if it wants to avoid being left behind, a conference in Cork involving key players in the field has been told.
Ireland has earned a strong global reputation for the quality of its work and the capability of its workforce in relation to the pharmaceutical industry. Cork is home to major players including as GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Eli Lilly.
However, Dr Michael Kamarck, president of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, told yesterday’s conference at Cork County Hall that the industry was in the midst of a tumultuous period, with many companies facing closure unless they adapted with tremendous speed to the new climate.
“The meteor has already hit. It is going to be challenging because the volumes of the products are decreasing dramatically. What we need to look at in Cork in particular, where there is this wonderful concentration of manufacturing, is the way to efficiently and economically do that consolidation while employing as many jobs as possible. There is a risk and it is a risk we ought to take very seriously.”
Dr Kamarck suggested the area needed to support investment in new technologies that would allow for the kind of flexibility needed in the future for new manufacturing.
Pharma companies should work together to build manufacturing consortiums so they could manufacture more efficiently rather than every company having its own manufacturing network.
“It is about combining forces and also to improve the technology that we use in manufacturing,” Dr Kamarck added. “There is no reason that we have to give up manufacturing in Ireland to the Far East, but we are going to have to take very seriously the threat to jobs that are already in existence.”
Graham Symcox, chief executive of Bio and Pharma Consulting Ltd, said Ireland needed to be more involved in product-development rather than in its traditional focus on manufacturing.
“The harsh message is that we are seen as the place in the world where you manufacture this stuff. I think, to a degree, we don’t help ourselves . . . We want to be seen as a place where you bring a molecule, do the development, launch it and supply it. We need to communicate that.”
Cork county manager Martin Riordan described the pharma sector as one of Ireland’s great foreign direct investment success stories. “The sector is responsible for over 40 per cent of Irish exports.
“It is a key creator of employment with more than 50 per cent of the industry’s workforce being third level graduates. It is a massive, ongoing generator of construction activity. Sixteen of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies are located in Ireland.
“However,” Mr Riordan added, “the sector is undergoing rapid change and Ireland Inc needs to adjust to the new dynamic which is emerging. Comprehensive preparation for the next generation of pharma/biopharma activity and the development of innovative connectivity between key stakeholders in Ireland can identify new opportunities within this changing environment.”
