West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., hosted a groundbreaking ceremony in Waterford, Ireland to mark the start of construction for the company’s new pharmaceutical component manufacturing facility. Attended by Cllr James Tobin, Mayor of Waterford City and County; Cllr Lola O’Sullivan, Mayor of Waterford Metropolitan District; and other local officials, the event celebrated West’s continued investment in Ireland and commitment to the local Waterford community.

The Waterford facility will manufacture packaging components for insulin injector cartridges and other high-value packaging components for injectable drugs, to meet increasing customer demand. The company intends to employ approximately 150 people in engineering, production and other positions by the commencement of operations in late 2018.

“West’s presence in Ireland is of great importance to us for meeting customer demand for high-quality packaging components,” said Eric Green, chief executive officer, West. “Packaging systems play an important role in ensuring the purity, long-term stability and efficacy of injectable drug products. The advanced components that will be produced at our state-of-the-art Waterford plant will help our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers deliver their products to patients.”
 
The 95,000 square foot facility will be situated at a 44-acre site at Knockhouse on Old Kilmeaden Road in Waterford. The site has been cleared for construction and activity will commence with civil work in mid-July.

The new facility will function as a center of excellence for West’s proprietary elastomeric sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. Additionally, the facility will include manufacturing capacity for additional proprietary injectable component product lines, which are integral to the packaging of many injectable medicines. Two key product lines include Westar RU components, which are delivered sterile and ready-to-use to customers for their aseptic filling operations; as well as NovaPure components, West’s highest quality packaging component line.


West has had a presence in Ireland since 2005. Its Mulhuddart, Dublin manufacturing and development center, where the company recently completed a multimillion euro expansion, is home to Tech Group Europe Limited, West’s global contract manufacturing solutions provider that specializes in providing device design, development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device manufacturers.