Editor’s note: this story was updated on December 8, 2016 to include further details and background.

Shire has received formal planning permission from the Meath County Council for its $400 million new biomanufacturing facility at Piercetown, County Meath in Ireland which will support its rare-disease product pipeline. The new facility will consist of approximately 400 full time jobs in the areas of research and development, operations, technical staff, engineering, and construction. The site will supply both clinical and commercial-scale products and is expected to be operational by mid-2019.

Eariler this year, Shire announced its plans to expand its global biotechnology manufacturing capacity over the next four years by investing $400 million in Ireland. The company intends to create a biomanufacturing campus on a 120-acre site at Piercetown. With the approval of the local council, Shire is now moving forward with those plans. 

Shire’s current manufacturing facilities are in Cambridge and Lexington Massachusetts. The Cambridge site also includes warehouse facilities. The Lexington site also includes laboratories, warehousing, and distribution operations. The company also has a warehousing and distribution facility in Florence, Kentucky, a warehousing facility in North Reading, Massachusetts, and laboratory and office space in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Meanwhile, Shire completed its previously announced $32-billion acquisition of the specialty biopharmaceutical company, Baxalta, in June 2016. The combined portfolio from the merger of the two will have an expanded range of therapeutic areas with more than 60 programs in development, including over 50 that will address rare diseases and newly approved Baxalta products.

Shire anticipates more than 30 recent and planned product launches from the combined pipeline, contributing approximately $5 billion in annual revenues by 2020.

Source: Shire