EirGen Pharma has announced the commencement of works in its new plant in the IDA Industrial Estate in Waterford, including a €20 million internal refit and additional Plant rooms. This will facilitate an expansion of its Oral Solid Dose manufacturing and packaging capabilities. The new facility will provide an additional 3,500m2 of state-of-the-art manufacturing and packaging capabilities for its global customer base.
Handover took place in late December 2023 and initiation of works commenced by local Waterford contractor Weltec Engineering.
Eirgen Pharma acquired this prominent building and adjoining lands in the IDA Industrial Estate in 2022. Construction and fit out was originally budgeted at €12 million and was due to commence in Q3 2022 with commercial operations starting in Q1 2024. Unfortunately, the program has seen some delays due to global inflationary and design challenges. Thankfully all these challenges have been successfully overcome and work is underway at pace to retrofit the facility to a high-tech manufacturing site to support Eirgen Pharma’s expanding Oral Solid Dose portfolio.
CEO Damien Burke stated: “While there have been delays in the project, we’re now full steam ahead. We have overcome the initial issues we encountered, and our expansion plans are back on track. We have even increased our investment with some additional infrastructure and design improvements to the facility. This will now see €20 million invested locally during the construction and fit out phase.
As a company which was started and is still based in Waterford, we are pleased to announce that we are partnering with local company Weltec Engineering as our main contractor. We have a long association with the Weltec Engineering and are delighted to have a team who is familiar with Eirgen working on this project. While the delays were frustrating, they were essential to make ensure the investment will position us for sustained growth over the next ten years. The official hand over marks a huge milestone for Eirgen and enables the construction phase now to begin. Construction and fit out will continue through 2024 with commercial operations starting in Q2 2025.”
Gerard O’Leary, Managing Director of Weltec Engineering is delighted with this vote of confidence, “We’ve worked with Damien and the team at EirGen Pharma several times in the past and receiving a contract of this size is an endorsement of our work, the standards we set and the whole team. EirGen Pharma has always prioritised Waterford when it comes to employment and investment, and we’re just delighted to be in a position to provide the standard of service that means they can use a local business for this project.”
EirGen Pharma develops and supplies high potency specialty care medicines to patients in more than fifty countries worldwide. It was established in 2005 and has been part of OPKO Health since 2015.