A new facility that aims to support the growth of the biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland, by educating and training staff and conducting research in collaboration with industry, was officially opened last week by Seán Sherlock, TD, Minister for Research & Innovation.
The new facility, representing a major strategic investment in the bioprocessing industry involves academics at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Institute of Technology, Sligo and Dublin City University and is claimed to be the only training facility in the world that so closely replicates an industrial bioprocessing environment.
This will allow trainees the opportunity to learn and practice procedures using the most relevant and up to date equipment.
Sherlock said the facility will set Ireland apart as location for pharmaceutical companies nand will will help the country’s inward investment agency, IDA Ireland to attract more biopharmaceutical companies to set up operations.
The CEO of IDA Ireland, Barry O’Leary said Ireland is already established as the second largest development and manufacturing location in the world for biopharmaceuticals, after the US. Companies that have made investments in Ireland include Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Genzyme (Sanofi), Lilly, Centocor , Allergan and Mylan. “The establishment of NIBRT will further improve Ireland’s value proposition in attracting further Biopharmaceutical investment to Ireland,” O’Leary said.
Nine of the top ten pharma companies have bases in Ireland. The sector employs over 47,000 staff, with exports last year in excess of €46 billion – 42 per cent of total exports from Ireland.
The 6,500 sq metres NIBRT facility was designed in conjunction with industry experts to resemble a modern bioprocessing plant. The staff in NIBRT includes lecturers and trainers and research teams headed by leading principal investigators. An example is Pauline Rudd, who recently transferred her team from the Glycobiology Institute, Oxford University, to NIBRT.
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