Young Cherrywood company APC, one of Ireland’s largest employers of PhD-level scientists, is hiring.
Homegrown Irish biotech and pharma R&D company APC (Applied Process Company) is to create 50 new jobs in south Dublin as part of a €10m investment to expand its research facilities.
The €10m investment includes a €2m investment from client partner Bavarian Nordic, will support a 200pc increase in analytical capacity, a 100pc increase in high-potency facilities and a 500-litre biologics pilot plant.
‘This latest announcement of a €10m capital investment in our HQ and 50 pharma R&D jobs is a fundamental step toward realising our vision for the delivery of groundbreaking research’
– MARK BARRETT
Founded in 2011 by CEO Dr Mark Barrett and CTO Prof Brian Glennon, APC works with eight of the top 10 global pharma companies and five of the top 10 biotech companies, among others.
The primary objective of APC is to design, develop and optimise robust, scalable and transferable processes to ensure an efficient, safe and secure supply of medicines for clients’ patients.
New cancer therapy
The company is currently working on a new cancer therapy and will be able to bring it from discovery to market in just 18 months. Normally, this process can take up to five years. The aim is to reduce the mortality rate of this particular cancer by 85pc.
In addition, APC is also working on more than 20 other medicines for a variety of cancers, respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s and HIV.
APC currently employs 120 people, the majority of which are chemical engineers, and process and biopharmaceutical scientists. The company is the largest employer in Ireland of PhD-qualified chemical engineers and one of the country’s largest employers of PhD-level scientists.
The new facility announced today (27 September) will grow the Cherrywood headquarters to 60,000 sq ft, with staff numbers expected to increase by more than 40pc by the end of 2019.
Barrett hails from a family of engineers and studied chemical engineering at University College Dublin. Following graduation, he completed an internship at the Kennedy Space Center and Florida Space Authority Aeronautics and Life Science Research. He was a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year last year.
Speaking with Siliconrepublic.com, Barrett said: “Our five-year plan shows the APC family growing to over 250 staff comprised of [sic] PhD-qualified researchers and business professionals across offices in Dublin and beyond, taking us closer to our global client base.
“This latest announcement of a €10m capital investment in our HQ and 50 pharma R&D jobs is a fundamental step toward realising our vision for the delivery of groundbreaking research for our client partner medicines in, for example, cell and gene therapy, immuno-oncology and respiratory-based diseases. Further investment will help us realise our ambition to be a global provider of innovative process development and manufacturing technology solutions to the global pharma and biotech R&D market.”
Barrett said that the new facility fully integrates process analytical technology, process modelling and control capabilities.
Brian Sall, senior vice-president of global operations at Bavarian Nordic, said: “The partnership between APC and Bavarian Nordic has been a key factor for us in accelerating the development of a future robust and cost-effective manufacturing process for the commercial supply of vaccines for treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
“With a mortality rate on a par with influenza, there is a high unmet medical need for an RSV vaccine for the protection of children, elderly and individuals with respiratory and circulatory diseases.”
In March 2018, Bavarian Nordic reported positive clinical data from its 421-patient, Phase 2 study investigating the safety and immune effects of its universal RSV vaccine, MVA-BN RSV, in an older adult population.
