Jazz Pharmaceuticals to build new manufacturing and development facility in Ireland
It is expected to open in 2016 and create up to 50 new jobs when fully operational
Jazz Pharmaceuticals is building a 5,100m2 manufacturing and development facility on a 17-acre site in Monksland, County Roscommon, Ireland, approximately 75 miles east of the company's Dublin headquarters.
The company is investing US$60-US$68m (€45-€50m) in the new plant, its first manufacturing facility. It is expected to open in 2016 and will create up to 50 new jobs when operating at full capacity.
'Today marks a milestone for Jazz Pharmaceuticals as we break ground in Ireland and begin, for the first time, construction on a manufacturing and development facility,' said Bruce Cozadd, Chairman and Chief Executive of Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
'This investment not only strengthens our international manufacturing capabilities, but importantly represents our commitment to expanding our presence in Ireland.'
Members of the Board of Directors and employees of Jazz Pharmaceuticals were joined by the Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny and Barry O'Leary, CEO, Ireland's Industrial Development Authority (IDA Ireland), during a ground-breaking ceremony.
This investment not only strengthens our international manufacturing capabilities, but importantly represents our commitment to expanding our presence in Ireland
'This is a great boost for the local area and the 160 jobs being created in the construction phase will provide an opportunity for some of those people who lost jobs in this sector in recent years,' said Kenny.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals, originally a US company, relocated its domicile to Ireland in 2012 as part of a deal that saw it acquire Azur Pharma – a specialist drug development group founded by former Elan executive Seamus Mulligan – in an all stock deal that valued the Irish business at around $500m.
The firm is based in Dublin, Ireland and has operations in Palo Alto, California and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the US.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals has a diverse portfolio of products in the areas of narcolepsy, haematology/oncology, pain and psychiatry.
The company's US marketed products in these areas include: Xyrem (sodium oxybate) oral solution, Erwinaze (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi), Prialt (ziconotide) intrathecal infusion, FazaClo (clozapine, USP) HD and FazaClo LD.
Jazz also markets a number of products outside the US and expects to launch Defitelio (defibrotide), a treatment for severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD) in adults and children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, in the EU during 2014.
