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Gilead expands Cork operation to manufacture drugs for treatment of HIV and hepatitis.
Biopharma giant Gilead Sciences has opened a new €9.5m facility at its plant in Cork.
The Cork plant – which produces drugs for the treatment of HIV and hepatitis – is responsible for a quarter of Gilead’s total production of drugs in tablet form.
According to The Irish Times, the new quality control lab at Gilead’s Carrigtwohill site will boost production levels for markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The right growth formula
Gilead’s total workforce in Ireland stands at 500 people, the majority of whom are based at the Cork plant.
The site employed 60 people when it was acquired from Nycomed in 2007 and its workforce now stands at 390.
California-headquartered biopharma giant Gilead made a capital spend of €20m in its Irish operations last year.
The manufacture of 11 Gilead products was transferred to the Cork site in recent years, which is understood to have contributed to a significant increase in quality control testing requirements.
Gilead was founded in 1987 by Michael Riordan, a medical doctor who was 29 years old at the time.
Today, the company employs close to 10,000 people with annual revenues of around $26bn.
