A global pharma outsourcing company that plans to create up to 130 new jobs in Louth and Meath says Brexit prompted the business to invest in Ireland.
Bill Mitchell, president and chief executive of PCI Pharma Services, said the firm became “attracted” to the Republic because of the UK’s imminent EU departure.
The company, a pharmaceutical outsourcing services provider, is headquartered in Philadelphia and bought Millmount Healthcare in Stamullen, Co Meath last year. It now plans to create up to 130 new jobs over the coming five years, yesterday opening a new high containment packaging suite in Drogheda.
Mr Mitchell said that after the UK’s Brexit vote, the company’s international pharma customers “started to tell us that if we want to continue to grow we really need to take care of the Brexit issue.”
Continental Europe
He said the company had looked elsewhere “in continental Europe and compared a number of different locations but found the Republic to be “the obvious and best fit” for PCI.
“We all don’t know what the impact will be but it certainly was a driver for us to invest and acquire the Millmount facility here,” he said.
The new Drogheda facility Drogheda necessitated a €2.5 million investment, and the company expects to spend up to €10 million more over the coming five years. PCI already operates a manufacturing facility in Wales and expects anything made there to pass through Drogheda “in terms of testing, in terms of release, to go into the EU”.
PCI expects to have a total Irish workforce of about 220 by 2023.
The investment is supported by IDA Ireland.
