Cork County is one of Ireland's key pharmaceutical hubs and as such has been whiplashed the last several years, with some drugmakers expanding manufacturing, while others have made deep cuts to get costs down in the face of patent losses. And so a new facility that adds 20 jobs there does not go without notice.
That is how many positions GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is adding with the opening of a new facility in Carrigaline, according to The Cork News. The plant will manufacture Gantrez, the adhesive used in the company's Poligrip denture product, which is manufactured at a consumer healthcare plant in Dungarvan, Waterford, Ireland. Glaxo invested about €30 million ($40.6 million) in the new facility.
Finbar Whyte, the GSK Cork site director, said the new facility is an indication of the "key positions" both Cork and Dungarvan play in GSK's global manufacturing network, according to The Cork News. He said it "will greatly help secure existing employment at GSK in Ireland into the future." The company has about 1,450 workers in the country.
The GSK news is just one of a number of manufacturing changes in the area. In May, Pfizer ($PFE) announced it was closing a plant in Little Island, Cork, by next year and cut more than 135 jobs. Then, in July, it said it would invest about $30 million at its plant in Ringaskiddy, Cork. It said there would be no new jobs associated with that investment but that it would help secure positions already there. Merck ($MRK) announced a year ago it was closing an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing plant in Brinny in Cork County and would shed 90 jobs.
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- read the Cork News story