Employment

Cork, Galway and Dublin receive jobs boost with three recent major announcements

By Business & Finance
19 September 2016
jobs graph

Computing software company MathWorks and pharma giants GE Healthcare and Mallinckrodt have made notable jobs announcements today.

GE Healthcare has announced plans to establish four prefabricated, off-the-shelf biologics factories for GE customers in GE BioPark Cork, creating up to 500 jobs.

GE is also in the process of setting up a training collaboration with National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) to develop skills for Ireland’s biologics sector, training 1,500 professionals per year.

GE BioPark Cork, subject to contract and planning approvals, will feature Europe’s first KUBio bio-manufacturing facilities, owned and run by GE customers, and will serve as focal point for further investment in next-generation biopharmaceutical manufacturing in Ireland.

The construction phase, subject to planning approvals, is expected to begin by mid-2017 and create up to 800 construction jobs.

GE BioPark Cork will be a GE-managed campus including four fully equipped KUBio factories owned by independent biopharma companies manufacturing proprietary medicines, with GE running centralised shared utilities and site services.

Kieran Murphy, CEO, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, GE Healthcare, said: “Pharma companies world-wide are racing to respond to patient needs with new life-changing biological medicines and GE is investing in technology and service solutions, as well as industry skills and expertise, to enable them to make and get their products to market more quickly. We are delighted to be investing once again in Ireland, where we have ourselves a long history of manufacturing our own medical imaging products.”

Dominic Carolan, CEO, NIBRT, added: “NIBRT is delighted to partner with GE on the next generation of bioprocessing equipment, which will accelerate the introduction of these new technologies to the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry, helping to reduce manufacturing costs and increase the access to these valuable therapies.”

In other pharma jobs news, Mallinckrodt has grown its investment in Dublin College Business and Technology Park to €85m.

The company has announces a new €10m R&D facility to house global device engineering, creates 40 R&D jobs – growing to 120 new roles over time at the new site at College Business and Technology Park in Blanchardstown, Dublin.

Mallinckrodt has a long history of operations in Ireland and has had a presence there for over 20 years and the new facility will house global device engineering for the company.

Mark Trudeau, president and CEO of Mallinckrodt, said: “Today’s dedication and announcement reaffirms Ireland’s strategic importance to Mallinckrodt as we continue with our transition to become a high-growth, global specialty pharmaceutical business. We are in the process of bringing global R&D activities for medical devices to this location and the team will focus on developing systems for delivery of certain specialty pharmaceutical therapies in our portfolio.”

MathWorks, the developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists, is to establish a shared sales and services centre in Galway. The company’s long-term investment in Galway includes plans to fill 50 positions in its new location. The company is actively recruiting to fill more than 20 of these positions.

The company’s flagship products, Matlab and Simulink, are used throughout the automotive, aerospace, communications, electronics, and industrial automation industries as fundamental tools for research and development.

The new centre in Galway will support the company’s EMEA markets across a range of customer-facing roles including sales and services support, inside sales, channel development and support, finance and administration.