GE Healthcare to create 500 jobs with €150m investment

GE Healthcare is to invest €150 million in a new state of the art bio-manufacturing campus in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork which will create up to 800 construction jobs in the manufacturing phase.

The new campus, GE BioPark, is to be home to four next generation biopharmaceutical factories which will be leased out to GE clients, and is expected generate significant employment.

GE Healthcare and the IDA say that they hope to see up to 500 people employed at the BioPark when it is fully operational, with 400 jobs provided by the manufacturers and 100 staff employed by GE Healthcare directly.

Although there are no companies lined up to take over the four sites yet, GE are confident that the factories will be filled extremely quickly.

GE Healthcare already employs 600 people in the Cork area, and the IDA has prioritised investment from the biopharmaceutical area over the past decade and a half. Ireland is now a global hub for the sector and nine of the Top 10 global drug companies have an international base in Ireland.

As long as the plans can pass the planning stage, the new BioPark will feature Europe’s first KUBioâ„¢, prefabricated, off-the-shelf bio-manufacturing facilities which GE say allows a state of the art bio-manufacturing facility be completed and in use within 550 days – traditionally built plants of this scale and scope can take three times as long to manufacture.

The prefabricated modules come equipped with the heating, ventilating, air conditioning (HVAC) system and all the piping necessary to run a modern bio-manufacturing plant, and can be adjusted to meet the individual needs and layouts of clients.

The cost of the factories is also significantly reduced with the pre-fabricated process – it is estimated that construction costs are 25 per cent lower than building a plant of this size and complexitythrough traditional manufacturing methods.

(You can read more about the KUBioâ„¢ process here.)

Once planning has been approved the construction phase is expected to start by mid-2017 and create up to 800 construction jobs. The construction process is planned to be finished by the end of 2018.

The project is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.