Pfizer to move 'up the value chain'

Sunday Business Post - Cork 2008 Supplement - May 25 2008

Pfizer's €190 million facility will create a multitude of jobs as well as improving the quality of work done by the firm in Cork, writes Dermot Corrigan

The world's largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, is investing €190 million in a new biologics facility in Cork. The Shanbally plant is expected to create approximately 100 high skilled jobs over three years.

It will be used for manufacturing and research base and will be located on a 30 acre site adjacent to Pfizer’s existing facility in Ringaskiddy. Work has already begun on the site, which is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of next year.

Paul Duffy, vice president of patent protected products operations with Pfizer, said the new plant would move the company's Cork based activities "up the value chain".

"The new facility is a different type of manufacturing than what we are currently doing in Cork," he said. "It is moving up the value chain of activity. The work will be in the early development phase - the clinical study phase - working very closely with research."

"We are manufacturing products, but it is not your routine manufacturing activity. It is more of a research and development type activity, with products entering into phase two and three clinical trials."

It is envisaged that biotherapeutic treatments for oncology, chronic pain, diabetes and auto-immune diseases will be developed and manufactured at the new Cork facility. Biologics or biotherapeutics are large-molecule medicines based on proteins, peptides and antibodies that primarily come from molecular biology developments.

They must be manufactured in highly specialised and sophisticated processing plants, adhering to strict production processes.

Duffy said the company had already begun hiring for research and manufacturing positions at the plant. He said the jobs would be filled by candidates already working in the biotechnology sector in Cork, as well as graduates.

"We are on a very short timeline," he said. "We are looking to have the facility producing material by the end of 2009, so there is a very aggressive timeline to get people in, and get them trained and ready. It means trying to hire people who have the skills already. They are high technical skilled jobs, which will require people with a technical background."


The investment will also result in the creation of up to 500 construction and service jobs during the peak of building activity, Duffy added.

He said the new plant would complement work carried out at the company's existing Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) division, which opened in Ringaskiddy late last year, and would also have close links with Pfizer's other sites around Ireland.

"The biologics facility is a separate site, which will be run as a separate site, but we will leverage the benefits we have in Cork, for example links with local supply companies," he said.

Pfizer's successful history in Cork made the Shanabally site the ideal location for the new facility, which could have gone elsewhere, Duffy said.

"When you are making an investment like this there are a number of things that you look at," he said. "You look at the quality of the people available. Do you have people to construct it, do you have guaranteed suppliers et cetera? There are alternatives, and Pfizer could invest in other countries around the world. But what we have proven in Cork over the years is that we can deliver. So the company has a high level of confidence in Cork. That all feeds into decisions like this."

Ffizer first established an operation in Cork in 1970, and opened its main Ringaskiddy plant in 1972. Since then it has invested over €1 billion in Ireland and now employs almost 2,300 people at its different business units in Ireland, including five manufacturing plants, sales and marketing, a global shared service business and a treasury operation in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Dublin. Its manufacturing operations in Loughbeg and Little Island in Cork, as well as in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, produce successful products including Viagra and Lipitor.

In February 2007, Pfizer announced plans to cut 545 jobs, closing two production plants in Cork.

"We are actively selling the two plants in Cork," Duffy said. "That is a challenge and it is due to the ups and down of business. The sale of the two sites is very difficult for the people on those sites, who are doing a good job in a difficult environment, but that is the nature of business and the nature of business we have in Cork is changing. The latest biotechnology announcement is great because it is positive and new."

Duffy said that, while Cork had worked hard over the years to position itself as a globally renowned pharmaceuticals hub, the region faced a more challenging foreign direct investment environment in the future.

"Cork faces similar challenges to the rest of the country," he said. "You have to look at the whole cost structure. Ireland is not a cheap location to manufacture material. We have to try and manage our costs as best we can. We will never be a low cost location, because we have moved beyond that."

"We need to be as efficient and cost effective as we can be. Our pay rates have to be moderate and we have to have competitive service charges and energy costs. We also have to make sure we have the qualified people."

It was important that the Irish government and workforce realised that other countries throughout the world are working hard to become attractive locations for investment from multinationals such as Pfizer, Duffy said.

"Ireland is seen as a centre for biotechnology around the world, but we have to continue to work on attracting companies," he said. "It is a very competitive and small world now. You look around the world at countries like Singapore which are very focused on attracting industry. Are we that focused? Unless we are hungry for it, we could drop down the pecking order very quickly."