BMS looks to expand biologics plant in Ireland

Bristol Myers Squibb has applied to expand its biologics drug substance manufacturing facility in Cruiserath, Ireland.

Between 2016 and 2017 Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) invested $1 billion to construct a 30,000 square-meter facility in Cruiserath, which is located half an hour outside of Dublin and is the firm’s first biologics plant situated outside of the US.

This week, news outlet the reported the company would create hundreds of jobs through its plan to build another biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Dublin.

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A spokesperson for BMS confirmed the plans and told BioProcess Insider: “We recently issued a site notice stating our intention to apply for development of [a] biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing facility to expand our existing BMS Cruiserath site. We will provide further updates as they become available.”

“BMS regularly evaluates ways to drive greater efficiency while maintaining a strong, core commitment to innovation, quality and delivering the value of our portfolio of medicines for patients with serious diseases.”

Currently, there are five buildings located at the Cruiserath site. It has a central utility building (CUB), a multi-product cell culture (MPCC) building that produces the drug substance, a global biologics laboratory (GBL) for the release testing of biologics drug product for the company’s network, a warehouse, cryogenics, and logistics (WCL) building that provides storage, raw material sampling, as well as logistical support to the MPCC manufacturing site, and laboratory and offices space.

The Cruiserath facility was designed to have the ability to produce multiple products at one time. While specific details of the expansion have not yet been disclosed, in December 2017 BMS said it expected to hire 440 scientists, bioprocess operators, quality specialists, engineers, and other skilled workers once it became fully operational in 2018.