10/02/2012
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...
10/10/2011
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...
22/09/2011
September 22nd 2011: “This strategically important development for MSD which brings R&D and high-value jobs to our economy is a significant endorsement of Ireland’s wealth of talent and expertise,” said the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD speaking at the official opening of the new €100m pharmaceutical R&D centre at MSD in Ballydine, Co. Tipperary. “The decision by this global healthcare leader to invest in Ireland in order to provide the capability to bring new innovative medicines to market faster is an endorsement of my government’s strategy to focus on job creation and the knowledge...
22/09/2011
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...
30/05/2011
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...
13/05/2011
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...
29/03/2011
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...
18/02/2011
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...
18/02/2011
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.
20/01/2011
This Enterprise Ireland networking reception, hosted by the Irish Embassy, will bring together senior decision makers and global pharma executives and will include delegates from the EIU Global Pharma Summit.
Date: Thursday 10th February 2011
Time: 17.00 -20.00
07/12/2010
Takeda has made another move into the vaccines sector with the expansion of a deal with Baxter International for the use of a cell culture technology for making influenza vaccines.
The Japanese drugmaker has gained an exclusive licence in Japan for Baxter's proprietary Vero technology.
Traditionally, vaccines are manufactured using hens' eggs, but this process requires very large amounts of eggs and takes at least six months, making it difficult to keep up with a rapidly mutating virus. The Vero cell culture process can be initiated more rapidly thanks to its use of a...
03/12/2010
The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) welcomes the announcement this morning by the Health Service Executive (HSE) that it has added an enhanced pneumococcal vaccine (PCV) to the childhood immunisation programme.
The addition of this new vaccine to the childhood immunisation programme means that Irish children are now less likely to get the life-threatening illness, meningitis. Irish children are now protected against a total of 12 infectious agents under the current national vaccination programme.
03/12/2010
Research-based pharmaceutical research companies are working on 100 new medicines and vaccines to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS and related conditions, according to a new report published today to mark World Aids Day.
Although scientists have made phenomenal advances in understanding the disease and have discovered 31 approved medicines used to control the virus in different ways, there is still no cure and no vaccine to prevent transmission. Moreover, the virus has proved its capacity to mutate and become resistant to available treatments, resulting in a constant...