The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michael Martin announced today that pharmaceutical company Wyeth is to establish a new bio-therapeutic drug research facility at UCD, with the support of the IDA.
The €13m facility will be located at the Conway Institute at UCD and 'will employ 12 top class research scientists research jobs who will focus on "product discovery, pre-clinical research and drug discovery technology development'.
Its work will focus on five main disease areas - inflammation, oncology, women's health and musculoskeletal biology, cardiovascular and metabolic disease and neuroscience.
Minister Martin said :'this facility is a significant endorsement of Ireland as a location for drug discovery research. It will demonstrate to the international pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical community throughout the world the caliber of this country's talents and abilities in the field of leading edge Research and Development'.
'This investment is exactly what the Government's policy and IDA Ireland's strategy in research and development is aiming to achieve in the biopharmaceutical sector,' he added.
Dr Frank Walsh, executive vice president and head of Wyeth Discovery Research, said the collaboration confirms the company's commitment to Ireland and builds on its capacity for the development of biotechnology therapies that will 'undoubtedly lead to longterm benefits to patient health'.
Wyeth Corporation employs 3,000 at its four Irish operations and is headquartered in New Jersey in the US. It is the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world and employs 51,000 people.
