Pharma boosts Kerry with almost 300 jobs
Three pharmaceutical companies have provided Kerry with a jobs boost today as 300 new positions are announced.
The Irish Times reports today that the jobs will be created as part of phase one of the €4.7bn Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence (GPCE) development in Tralee.
The International Prevention Research Institute (iPRI), Global Research Services (GRS) and Optivia Biotechnology will between them create 282 jobs in Tralee over the next fifteen months.
Recruitment is due to start for the research and development roles in May.
The GPCE sees itself as a campus style facility with a corporate and commercial orientation. The project’s organisers hope that over 4,500 people will be working at the centre by 2015.
Initial funding for the €4.7bn project has been secured and developers – Pharmadel’s chief executive Pat Barry, former EU Commissioner David Byrne, Anglo Irish Bank chairman Alan Dukes and founding president of the University of Limerick, Dr Edward Walsh – are currently in talks with other investors, including Saudi Arabia.