BioMarin Opens €38m Expansion of its Cork Manufacturing Site

Global biopharmaceutical company BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. opened the expansion of its manufacturing plant at Shanbally, Co. Cork. The company has invested €38 million over four years to create a state-of-the-art aseptic production facility. The new facility will manufacture, package and label BioMarin therapies for global distribution. With the expansion, BioMarin will begin end-to-end manufacturing for a number of the company’s commercial products and has the capacity to produce additional clinical and commercial products, including gene therapies, as the company grows its pipeline.

“Our wholly-owned, end-to-end manufacturing sites, including Shanbally, are critical to BioMarin’s global supply capabilities,” said Greg Guyer, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President, Technical Operations of BioMarin. “This expansion positions us as a leading manufacturing operation in Ireland and will help us maintain our industry-leading production and delivery capabilities for patients around the world.”

Speaking at the official opening, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, TD said, “Congratulations to all at BioMarin on the expansion of their Cork manufacturing site. This represents a significant advancement for biopharma in Ireland and will also be of great benefit to patients served by BioMarin products and therapies. BioMarin operates in a unique space serving those living with rare disease and I wish the company well as they continue to invest in operations in Ireland to meet the needs of the rare disease community.”

“Since first establishing in Cork just over 10 years ago, BioMarin has continued to innovate and invest in its Shanbally site, which remains the company’s only manufacturing facility outside of the US,” said Michael Lohan, CEO of IDA Ireland. “As a global leader in the manufacturing of treatments for rare diseases, BioMarin’s ongoing investment in Ireland is a welcome endorsement of the country’s position globally as a location of choice for biopharmaceuticals.”

The expansion builds on BioMarin’s growth over a decade of operations in Ireland and the organisation’s 25-year history in responding to the needs of people with rare conditions across the globe. This innovative and ambitious development gives the company’s only manufacturing site outside of the United States a fully integrated manufacturing process, from bulk drug substance to drug product to final packaging. BioMarin continues to be a leader in the biopharmaceutical space and these advances make the Shanbally plant one of a few facilities in Ireland with capabilities for end-to-end commercial drug product manufacturing. Investments at the site have seen production levels increase by as much as 150% for some of the company’s products.

BioMarin has eight marketed treatments, including its first gene therapy launched last year. BioMarin’s first site in Ireland opened in 2012, with just 12 people. The company now employs more than 500 people across two locations in Ireland: the Shanbally manufacturing site and Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin, which serves as BioMarin’s headquarters for Canada and Europe. BioMarin is investing more than €30 million expanding its packaging operations at Shanbally and is actively progressing with recruitment for more than 40 roles across its operations at the site over the coming years. The expansion reinforces BioMarin’s commitment to invest in future operational capabilities to support the rising demand for the company’s breakthrough therapies across Europe and around the world.

“BioMarin’s culture revolves around a sense of community, collaboration, and a commitment to high performance,” said Conor Delaney, Site Lead and Vice President of Shanbally Manufacturing Operations of BioMarin International Limited. “Our people are driven to discover and develop medicines that give patients, their families and caregivers hope where there was little or none.”