West To Build New Manufacturing Facility In Ireland In 2015
West announced plans to break ground on a $126 million manufacturing facility in Waterford, Ireland. The new facility will produce packaging components for insulin injector cartridges — a market with growing global demand.
Initially, the new facility will manufacture only insulin packaging products, however Donald Morel, Jr., Chief Executive of West, expressed hopes to expand the facility further in coming years to accommodate a broader range of injectable therapies in coming years.
Morel told The Irish Times that the expansion was needed to meet a growing demand. “With diabetes emerging as one of the fastest growing diseases globally, our pharmaceutical customers are expanding their production lines for injectable insulin.”
According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), approximately three million Americans suffer from Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), and 30,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. T1D accounts for $14.9 billion in healthcare costs in the U.S. alone.
Construction on the Waterford facility is scheduled to begin in early 2015 and will create Irish jobs, not only in the construction phase, but 150 permanent jobs once the facility is up and running. According to The Irish Times, Morel projected that the number of jobs would increase to over 270 by 2019.
The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) credits the country’s competitiveness with the remarkable growth in pharma investment and business and believes the new facility will give the South East a much needed economic boost.
According to Martin Shanahan, Chief Executive of IDA, “Ireland has succeeded in attracting over 250 medical device manufacturers employing over 25,000 people in locations across the country.”
In addition to the investment in Waterford, Morel announced an expansion of business in the West subsidiary Tech Group, as well. The Tech Group, housed in Dublin, specializes in device design, development, and manufacturing services.
In July, West opened the doors of a newly constructed 164,700 square foot manufacturing plant in India, which will produce seals used in the primary packaging of injectable medicines.