New £285m biomanufacturing site in Ireland to create 700+ jobs

The construction of the company’s first site outside of China is supported by the Irish Government through the Industrial Development Authority.

WuXi offers biologics platforms for the discovery, development and manufacture of biologics from concept to commercial manufacturing.

The building will feature several single-use bioreactors for commercial biomanufacturing and is compatible with a next generation manufacturing technology called continuous bioprocessing.

WuXi Biologics CEO Dr Chris Chen said: “We are all excited to initiate our first global site to enable local companies and expedite biologics development in Europe.

“In addition, this is the start and a critical part of our global biomanufacturing network to ensure that biologics are manufactured at the highest quality and with a robust supply chain to benefit patients worldwide.

“We are committed to Ireland and will work with all local partners to build this state-of-art next generation biomanufacturing facility as a showcase to the global biotech community.”

48,000 litre fed-batch and 6,000 litre perfusion bioreactor capacity will be installed, the world’s largest facility using single-use bioreactors.

Ireland Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys said: “This huge €325m (£285m) investment is a great vote of confidence in Ireland and reinforces our image as a global centre of excellence in Biologics.

“This investment will result in the creation of over 400 highly skilled jobs over five years as well as approximately 700 construction jobs.”