West Breaks Ground on New Facility in Ireland

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., the Exton, Pa.-based provider of packaging components and drug delivery systems, broke ground recently on its new 95,000-square-foot plant in Waterford, Ireland.

A ceremony marked the beginning of construction for the company’s new pharmaceutical component manufacturing facility. West is no stranger to the Emerald Isle. The company has had a presence in Ireland since 2005. Its Mulhuddart, Dublin manufacturing and development center, where the company recently completed a multi-million-dollar expansion, is home to Tech Group Europe Ltd, West’s global contract manufacturing solutions provider that specializes in providing device design, development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device manufacturers.

The Waterford facility will manufacture packaging components for insulin injector cartridges and other high-value packaging components for injectable drugs, to meet increasing customer demand. The company intends to employ approximately 150 people in engineering, production and other positions when operations begin in late 2018.

“West’s presence in Ireland is of great importance to us for meeting customer demand for high-quality packaging components,” said Eric Green, CEO of West. “Packaging systems play an important role in ensuring the purity, long-term stability and efficacy of injectable drug products. The advanced components that will be produced at our state-of-the-art Waterford plant will help our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers deliver their products to patients.”

The new facility will function as a center of excellence for West’s proprietary elastomeric sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. Additionally, the facility will include manufacturing capacity for additional proprietary injectable component product lines, which are integral to the packaging of many injectable medicines.

“We are very fortunate to have found an ideal location in Waterford, Ireland, with a highly skilled life-sciences workforce and local government officials and agencies who are true partners, working together with our team to help us fulfill our vision to create a healthier world. We’d like to thank Mayor Tobin, Waterford City & County Council and IDA Ireland for their continued support,” Green added.