CPL/Thornshaw Scientific hosted a talk recently on the Future of Recruitment.

The event was hosted in the Science Gallery by Peter Cosgrove, Director of Cpl on the 28^th of February with over 150 industry leaders in attendance. Topics covered during the presentation included the latest trends in recruitment, best practice case studies to help companies maximise ROI and some of the most effective ways of attracting top talent. To view the presentation, just click on the slides below.

Outlined in the presentation;

• The importance of talent now more than ever
• How companies are leveraging social media to build communities
• How companies are building their brand through technology

Peter also highlighted that the utilisation of mobiles has increased significantly, for example 1.2 billion mobile apps were downloaded between 25-30 December. Cpl understands the importance of utilising mobile apps having launched Ireland’s first free job search app, which is now one of the top ranking business apps. To download the Cpl App, click here for Android and here for the iPhone App.

Knowing your employee value proposition is very important; often your brand is not what you think it is. In addition he states that engagement is key. Companies are encouraged to focus not on salaries, but on engaging with staff. Peter suggests working with companies such as Junior Achievement as a simple way to improve people engagement.

Peter concluded the presentation with the following main points:

• Getting engagement will be key
• Companies should utilise technology and the web
• Recruitment starts with the CEO

The presentation was followed by a networking event which included a draw to win an IPad2; the lucky winner of which was Paraic O’Dowd (Pictured with Peter Cosgrove) so congratulations Paraic!

Thanks to all who attended, we hope that you enjoyed the event.

Abbott plans to invest €85 million at its pharmaceutical manufacturing operation in Sligo. The investment will result in the creation of up to approximately 175 highly skilled jobs.  The expansion of the facility will be completed in 2014.

The expansion will provide additional space for manufacturing operations to support Abbott’s future pharmaceutical pipeline in the key therapeutic areas of virology, oncology and nephrology and provide additional capacity in Abbott's global pharmaceutical manufacturing network.  The new jobs that will be created will be highly skilled and include roles in engineering, quality, pharmaceutical science and other science-based areas. The majority of the jobs will be added during the construction phase and the remainder will come on stream post the completion of the expansion. In addition, construction employment will create up to 150 temporary jobs.

DUBLIN, Monday, 10th October, 2011:  Following the creation of 50 new jobs in Ireland announced in July this year, Allianz Worldwide Care has announced a further 128 positions, to be filled immediately at the company’s headquarters in Park West.

Welcoming today’s announcement Barry O’Leary, IDA Ireland CEO said ‘We are delighted that Allianz has decided to create these additional jobs in Dublin. Allianz is a leading international health insurance company which has been going from strength to strength in Ireland. It is encouraging that today’s announcement follows a flow in recent weeks of other non-US investments including arvato (part of Bertelsmann Group), Biotrin Group (division of Dia Sorin), Caci, the creditor insurance subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Assurances, HCL from India and Japan Research Institute, the specialist IT subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.’

PHARMA GIANT Pfizer is investing a further $200 million at its Grange Castle plant in Dublin.

The US group is expanding the number of processing suites and the biotechnology manufacturing plant in Clondalkin to allow it increase production capacity.

The new units will facilitate more product testing.

Grange Castle is one of the largest biotech manufacturing sites worldwide, employing 1,100 staff.

It produces two of the US group’s blockbuster drugs – the pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar and the rheumatology medicine Enbrel.

Up to 400 construction jobs will be created during the building of the plant. The company did not indicate any increase in other employment as a result of the investment.

Announcing the investment yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was welcome news from a global leader in biopharmaceuticals.

“Pfizer has made a tremendous contribution to Ireland’s Life Sciences industry since it first established here in 1969 and this investment is a further demonstration of the company’s continuous commitment to Ireland,” he said.

Pfizer Inc. announced strategic partnerships with ICON plc and PAREXEL International Corporation, both of which will serve as strategic providers of clinical trial implementation services over a five-year period beginning in June 2011. The new partnerships will be fully implemented over an 18-to-24 month period.

The ICON and PAREXEL alliances reflect Pfizer's recent commitment to strengthen the performance of its innovative core. Pfizer announced in February a comprehensive program of change in R&D to sharpen research focus, deliver differentiated innovation, and create a more flexible cost base through external partnerships for certain R&D services. The new partnership model for clinical trial execution will enable Pfizer to focus internally on its core capability in clinical trial design, while leveraging the strengths and scale of ICON and PAREXEL to implement clinical development programs with greater efficiency and rigor. Going forward, Pfizer's externalization efforts will make it possible to adjust investment and activity according to the changing needs of the portfolio.

Alkermes purchased Elan’s Elan Drug Technologies (EDT) unit in a cash and stock transaction worth approximately $960 million. The two companies will be merged into a new holding company in Ireland under the name Alkermes plc.

A press statement explained that Elan will receive $500 million in cash and $31.9 million in ordinary shares of the new company’s common stock. Alkermes believes that the transaction will be immediately accretive to its cash earnings. The combined company is expected to have annual growing product, royalty, and manufacturing revenues in excess of $450 million.

Merck KGaA announced that in order to provide assistance to the Japanese people following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of their country, the company will donate a total of 100 million YEN (approximately EUR 875,000).

The major part of the donation will be given to the international relief organization "Save the Children". Merck's Japanese subsidiaries will decide how the remainder of the donation will be distributed. The region around Onahama, where one of Merck's production sites is located and which is close to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, will definitely benefit from the donations.

The company is also encouraging its employees to make donations and has agreed to match employee contributions. These funds will also be given to "Save the Children".

A new law to prevent fake drugs from entering the supply chain has been approved by the European Parliament, covering internet sales and introducing new safety and traceability measures, as well as sanctions against counterfeiters.

The directive, which has been in the works for over two years and now needs to be ratified by the Council of Ministers, is designed to tackle the estimated 1% of medicinal products currently sold to the European public through the legal supply chain that are fake. Marisa Matias, a Portuguese MEP and the parliamentary rapporteur, said that "falsified medicines are silent killers" and "the absence of a legal framework encourages counterfeiting, an organised crime". She noted that "we have been witnessing a huge growth of this criminal activity, with an increase of 400% in seizures of fake drugs since 2005". 

Sanofi-aventis and Genzyme Corporation announced recently that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which sanofi-aventis is to acquire Genzyme for $74.00 per share in cash, or approximately $20.1B. In addition to the cash payment, each Genzyme shareholder will receive one Contingent Value Right (CVR) for each share they own, entitling the holder to receive additional cash payments if specified milestones related to Lemtrada (alemtuzumab MS) are achieved over time or a milestone related to production volumes in 2011 for Cerezyme and Fabrazyme is achieved.