Gilead Sciences has been slowly growing its operations in Ireland, a biopharma hotspot, to help distribution of its blockbuster HIV meds. Now, the California drugmaker will add 140 jobs in the country in a push to expand its growing Dublin base.
Gilead is building out its Irish operations team as it fleshes out its Dublin distribution facility to complement an existing manufacturing center at the Cork biopharma hub, the Irish Times reported.
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The majority of those new positions will go to Gilead's growing facility at Dublin's North Dock, filling out the drugmaker's operations in process development, analytical operations, legal, human resources, supply chain, information technology, facilities, engineering and financial shared services, the Times said.
The California-based drugmaker expects to hire on 80 new employees within 12 months and bring the other 60 positions online by 2022. The expansion effort will come out to roughly $8 million, the Times reported.
The bulk of Gilead's Irish operations currently centers around its Cork facility, which manufactures and packages 22 drug products, including HIV and HCV solid oral products that make up about 25% of Gilead’s total solid oral drug production, the Times said.
The drugmaker also runs a financial shared services facility in Little Island, County Cork and its growing base in Dublin, which distributes to 90 global markets. Gilead currently employs 370 full-time staff across its Irish operations.
Back in May 2018, Gilead pumped $11 million into a new manufacturing control lab at its Cork site to boost production for the drugmaker's European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets. Gilead acquired the Cork site from Nycomed in 2007.
Altogether, Gilead has invested roughly $254 million into its Irish sites before the newest expansion.