Life Sciences - Pharmaceuticals

A strong pharmaceutical cluster has grown in the South East region of Ireland. A strong labour pool, high quality property options, competitively priced quality housing, a robust telecommunications infrastructure and attractive incentives for companies who invest here make this a location of choice for Pharmaceutical companies.

Amongst the companies who make up this Pharmaceutical cluster are,
Genzyme, GSK, IVAX, Cordis, Merck and Alza.

Oranmore, Co. Galway has been earmarked by IDA to become the hub of an biotechnology cluster with the establishment of a utility intensive Biopharmaceutical Science and Technology Park.

The presence of large numbers of science graduates, world leading bioprocessing and stem cell/gene therapy research in NUI Galway a Biopharmaceutical Training, Educational and Research Consortium, Biowest and expertise in GMP and regulatory processes all contribute to successful biopharma FDI in Galway. 

Oranmore is also ideally located just 5 minutes from Galway airport and 75 minutes from Shannon International airport with daily flights from North America, Europe and the UK.

As part of its pool of strategic sites IDA is currently marketing Mullagharlin. Co. Dundalk as a location for Biotechnology operations and related high quality office premises. Advance planning permission for this facility was recently granted resulting in the enhancement of competitive advantage in attracting inward investment for this sector.

The BioPharmaceutical Sector is characterised by ever shortening lifecycles and the ability to reach the market quickly is key to Ireland’s competitiveness. When countries in this sector decide to invest overseas, a determining factor on the location of the investment is the speed at which a facility can be established and production brought on stream. By gaining the advance planning permission for the Mullagharlin site, IDA is ensuring a leading edge over its competitors.