Posted on 6 months ago by Laurentina Kennedy
Pharma firm Bristol Myers Squibb gets green light for expansion in north Dublin
The pharma giant Bristol Myers Squibb has being given planning permission for a new manufacturing plant for Mulhuddart in Dublin 15 that will employ 300 people when operational.
Fingal County Council granted the permission to the Bristol Myers Squibb entity Swords Laboratories UC, trading as BMS Cruiserath Biologics, to construct a two-storey Sterile Drug Product (SDP) manufacturing building. It will be an expansion of the company's existing operations at the 131.5-acre BMS Cruiserath site in Mulhuddart,10.4km north-west of Dublin city centre.
At the end of 2022, Swords Laboratories UC employed 924 people and the most recent accounts show that the firm’s pre-tax profits increased by 82.5pc to $6.9bn (€6.29bn) in that year.
This followed revenues increasing by 27pc to $17.28bn. The firm recorded a post-tax profit of $6bn after incurring a corporation tax charge of $844.78m.
The firm paid out dividends of $4.82bn in 2022 and, underlining the contribution it is making to the local economy, staff costs for that year totalled $141.6m.
In what will represent a major expansion of the BMS Cruiserath operation, documents lodged with the application for the SDP state that during the construction phase, 405 staff are to be employed, rising to 450 at peak periods.
Plans were only lodged for the new plant in November, and the council’s grant of planning permission without seeking further information on the scheme allows Bristol Myers Squibb to remain on target to commence construction work in the first quarter of this year.
Planning documentation lodged with the application states that there will be peak construction activity on the project in 2024, with the company aiming to complete construction work in the third quarter of 2025.
The company is anticipating that commissioning will be complete in the first quarter of 2026.
The planning report states that the selection of Ireland as the preferred company for the investment “was largely based on the need for additional capacity in the region”. It adds that “the location of facilities is selected in order to provide the most secure, extensive, reliable and best performing biopharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure available”.
The report concludes: “Additionally, Ireland has a skilled workforce, a stable political and regulatory system.”