Wyeth invests €24m in Kildare facility

Pharmaceutical multinational Wyeth is to invest more than €24 million in a new centre in Newbridge, Co Kildare, creating more than 20 research and development positions.

The new positions will require people with PhD, MSc and BSc qualifications, to work on a new pharmaceutical development centre at the Wyeth Medica Ireland facility.

The investment, which includes support from IDA Ireland, is aimed at developing a centre that will be at the forefront of the company's development pipeline, according to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin.

He said the new centre will be the first of its size in Ireland and will lead the way in integrating development and manufacturing functions, an emerging trend in industry and a key strategic objective for IDA Ireland.

Wyeth is one of the largest research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare product companies in the world and employs more than 3,000 people at five existing facilities in Ireland.

Its Newbridge centre was established in 1992 and employs more than 1,300 people. A €300 million expansion at the site was recently completed, again with the support of IDA Ireland.

Mr Martin said the new centre will assist the Newbridge facility in attracting a significant number of new products coming out of the R&D pipeline.

"As investment in R&D is at the centre of the Government's economic policy, this is excellent news from a world-renowned company.

"It is a further endorsement by a global business leader that Ireland is a primary location for research and development."

He said the new investment will also help the Newbridge facility maintain its competitive position as a strategic site within the Wyeth organisation.

Parimal Desai, Wyeth vice-president, new products, said the announcement marked a "further vote of confidence in the Newbridge facility." The new centre will put Newbridge "at the leading edge of pharmaceutical technology and development".

Mr Desai said the centre would significantly enhance the Newbridge facility's capability as one of Wyeth's "key strategic pipeline sites".