West Expands its Manufacturing Footprint in Ireland

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., a manufacturer of devices for injectable drug administration, is expanding its global manufacturing operations to include a site in Waterford, Ireland.

The new facility will produce packaging components for insulin injector cartridges and other high-value packaging components, in order to meet growing demand from pharmaceutical and biotech customers, the company reported. Once operational, this site could bring approximately 150 new jobs to Waterford and is intended to grow to support additional jobs through future expansions.

“With diabetes emerging as one of the fastest growing diseases globally, our pharmaceutical customers are expanding their production lines for injectable insulin. To meet this growing demand, we are announcing an expansion today that will help us address this need and continue to serve this critical patient population,” said Donald E. Morel Jr., West’s chairman and CEO.

In the future, according to Morel, West plans for the site to be a center of excellence for advanced packaging component for range of sophisticated injectable therapies.

“Waterford, Ireland, is an ideal setting for this new plant, given its business-friendly environment and the growing health science industry in the area,” Morel added. “On behalf of West’s board of directors, I would like to thank the many representatives of Waterford City, the Irish government and the Irish Development Agency (IDA) for their support.”

Construction is planned to begin in early 2015 on the 44-acre site, subject to the project obtaining requisite planning and zoning approvals, which company officials predict will occur later this year.

This site will be a center for West’s proprietary elastomeric sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. Future plans include additional manufacturing space for West’s proprietary injectable component product lines, which are used for many injectable and dosage forms. With these expansions, the plant eventually could accommodate between 250 to 300 jobs and involve an investment in the range of €100 million (approximately $126 million at today’s conversion rates).
 
Richard Bruton, Ireland’s minister for jobs, enterprise and innovation, said: “The southeast [of Ireland] has been a key focus of my department and agencies since shortly after I took office. We have put in place structures like the Southeast Forum to bring a greater focus to this region. In the past two years the number of site visits has been well over twice what it was before 2011, we have seen many substantial jobs announcements and employment in the region has increased by well over 10,000 in the past two years. Today’s announcement by West … is another great boost. I commend the IDA for their work on this, and look forward to further announcements for the Southeast in the coming months.”

Martin Shanahan, CEO at IDA Ireland said: “Ireland has succeeded in attracting over 250 medical device manufacturers employing over 25,000 people in locations across the country. The IDA and its local stakeholders have fought off stiff competition to have this plant located in Ireland. This project is a vote of confidence in the people of Waterford.”

West has had a presence in Ireland since 2005 with a manufacturing and development center in Dublin, which is the European headquarters for The Tech Group, a West subsidiary that specializes in medical device design, development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical and medtech customers. Employing more than 230 people at its Mulhuddart, Dublin, facility, it also is undergoing an expansion as a result of securing a number of significant customer programs, the company reported.

Based in Exton, Pa., West has sales, manufacturing, customer support and, research and development locations in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Established in 1923, the company had 2013 sales totaling $1.4 billion.