A Genzyme manufacturing site in Ireland is getting a new name, some new products and more than three dozen new jobs.
As Sanofi ($SNY) reorganizes its manufacturing, next month the French drugmaker will rename the Genzyme Waterford site in Waterford, Ireland, to Sanofi Waterford, The Irish Times reports.
The company told the newspaper the updated moniker will better represent a pipeline of new products planned for Waterford, including, for the first time, diabetes products and medical devices. The plant currently manufactures drugs for rare diseases, like Fabrazyme, its treatment for the rare Fabry disease developed by Genzyme, the biotech operation Sanofi bought in 2001.
The drugmaker started the transition in 2013 when it said it would invest €44 million ($59 million) in the facility to equip it to manufacture Lantus, the world-leading, long-acting insulin and Sanofi’s top-selling drug.
The newest expansion will mean the need for about 40 new employees, the newspaper said. The site currently employees more than 630. More than €600 million has been spent on infrastructure at the site since 2001.
Sanofi also is expanding a Genzyme plant in Geel, Belgium, that also manufactures the company’s drug for the rare Pompe disease. Sanofi said in April that it would invest about $340 million (€300 million) to expand the site by 8,000 square meters (86,111 square feet), which Sanofi said will give it the capacity to manufacture other products. For that project, the company will add about 100 jobs when the new operations come online in mid-2017.
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