Dublin and Cork have received a major jobs boost following the announcement that one of the world’s biggest pharma companies is greatly expanding operations in Ireland.
US pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences is creating 140 jobs in the Rebel County and the Irish capital as it plans to invest about €7m in its Irish operations
Most of the new jobs will be in Dublin with additional roles set to be in their Cork facilities Cork Beo reports.
The company plans to fill 80 of the positions over the coming 12 months and the remainder will be employed by early 2022.
Gilead has been in the news due to the it’s experimental drug remdesivir which could help improve outcomes for people with Covid-19.
The new jobs will mostly be in areas of clinical development, process development and analytical operations while they will also be hiring in Cork and Dublin in HR, information technology, facilities and engineering.
Gilead is already operating a drug product manufacturing and packing facility in Carrigtwohill in Co Cork, where they manufacture and package 22 of its drug products.
The company also has a financial shared services centre in Little Island in Co Cork along with a distribution centre in Dublin that distributes to 90 markets worldwide.
Gilead’s manufacturing operations in Ireland supply countries across Europe and other parts of the world outside of the US.
Operating in Ireland for over two decades, Gilead has 370 full-time employees in Ireland and an additional 119 contingent workers.
The IDA’s chief executive Martin Shanahan said; “This is really positive news from the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland.
“We are delighted that, off the back of an already successful operation in the country, Gilead has decided to invest further in Ireland, creating 140 new roles,” IDA Ireland’s chief executive Martin Shanahan said.
“It demonstrates a huge vote of confidence in Ireland and our strong value proposition,” he added.
“It is very welcome news that Gilead Sciences has announced it will create 140 new jobs, the majority of which will be at its Cork facilities across Carrigtwohill and Little Island.
Cork Chamber of Commerce welcomed the news which it said was a major boost for Cork’s large and thriving life sciences sector.
“The announced €7 million investment in its Irish operations will be a further boost to our strong life science sector, and reinforces Ireland’s and Cork’s reputation globally as a destination for pharmaceutical industry,” said a spokesperson.
