University College Cork's School of Pharmacy was officially opened today by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin.
Constructed at a cost of almost €23m, the Cavanagh Pharmacy Building houses the only college of pharmacy outside Dublin.
Multinational pharmaceutical company AMGEN cited access to graduates as one of the main reasons for picking Cork for its new plant.
1,100 jobs are due to come on line at the plant in 2007 and many of the first crop of pharmacists from UCC's new School of Pharmacy will be hoping for work there.
The school currently has 150 students registered for the four-year degree course.
In the past five years, UCC has embarked on plans to create one of the largest colleges of medicine and health in Ireland, adding degree courses in nursing, pharmacy, speech and occupational therapy, as well as public health.
Student numbers in the College of Medicine and Health, which were in the hundreds ten years ago, will soon top 3,000.
