Some 330 highly skilled jobs are to be created over the next five years in Cork as part of a strategic biopharmaceutical investment that will involve a considerable amount of technology transfer and process development.
The jobs are to be created by Centocor, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which is investing in a Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Centre of Excellence on a 100-acre site at Ringaskiddy.
It is projected that 60pc of employees at the new facility will have a science or relevant discipline degree and an additional 10pc will hold masters or PhD qualifications.
Announcing the jobs, Tanaiste Mary Harney TD said: “Centocor’s investment will be pivotal to Ireland’s quest to be the number one location of choice worldwide for major biopharmaceutical activity. The Government’s vision and IDA Ireland’s commitment to promote the country as a knowledge economy along with the agency’s long-term strategy to ensure that we are ready for the next phase of inward investment has resulted in this substantial breakthrough and has succeeded in achieving a long-term goal.”
This investment will ensure that Centocor, already a world-leading biopharmaceutical corporation, remains at the leading edge of the biopharmaceutical industry which is growing at approximately 15pc per annum.
The biopharmaceutical manufacturing unit at Barnahely, Ringaskiddy will produce monoclonal antibody products for the detection and treatment of many human diseases and the facility will also be used to produce material for clinical trials.
By John Kennedy
