Bucking the sector’s downsizing spree, Eli Lilly has announced it is opening offices with 200 research and manufacturing jobs to fill at its Kinsale campus in Cork County, Ireland. The focus will be on employees with backgrounds that include specialties such as biochemistry and molecular biology.
Lilly spokesperson Andrew McLaughlin told MM&M that the new jobs will mostly likely be filled by a combination of re-allocated Lilly employees as well as completely new hires.
The new jobs are part of the company’s €330 million investment in a campus that is currently dedicated to small-molecule manufacturing. The investment, which equals approximately $435 million, will expand the site’s footprint so that it could be the launch pad for the pharmaceutical company’s biologics pipeline.
McLaughlin said the company chose to increase its footprint in Ireland over other locations for a number of reasons, including “a thriving biotech community in Ireland and an infrastructure that supports biopharmaceutical manufacturing.” McLaughlin said it also had the backing of the Irish Development Authority, which promotes local development.
The new project is a small reversal of sorts. McLaughlin said in an e-mail statement that Lilly hit its goal to trim costs by at least $1 billion between 2009 and 2011; these cuts included about 5,500 jobs.
McLaughlin noted that the company is expecting times to remain tight. “Our patent expirations will reduce our revenue by roughly $7 billion from 2011 to 2014, and our business environment will remain challenging worldwide,” he wrote.
