US group planning Irish pharma component plant

US injectables group West Pharmaceutical Services has announced plans to open a new site in Waterford, Ireland. The facility will produce packaging components for insulin injector cartridges and high-value packaging. It is forecast to create 150 new jobs in Ireland’s medtech sector.

“With diabetes emerging as one of the fastest growing diseases globally, our pharmaceutical customers are expanding their production lines for injectable insulin. To meet this growing demand, we are announcing an expansion today that will help us address this need and continue to serve this critical patient population,” said Donald E. Morel, Jr., West's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In the future, we intend for this site to be a center of excellence for advanced packaging components to meet the needs of our customer base for a range of sophisticated injectable therapies.”

“Waterford, Ireland, is an ideal setting for this new plant, given its business-friendly environment and the growing health science industry in the area,” Morel added. “On behalf of West's Board of Directors, I would like to thank the many representatives of Waterford City, the Irish Government and the Irish Development Agency for their support.”

West has had a presence in Ireland since 2005 with a manufacturing and development center in Dublin, which is the European headquarters for The Tech Group, a West subsidiary which specialises in providing device design, development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical and med-tech customers. Employing over 230 people at its Mulhuddart, Dublin facility, it is also undergoing an expansion as a result of securing a number of significant customer programs.