General Electric plans to invest €150 million in a new biopharmaceutical manufacturing campus at the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland’s strategic site in County Cork. The US conglomerate will also establish an advanced manufacturing training center at the National Institute for bioprocessing Research & Development (NIBRT) in Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy, said Ireland’s Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor said in announcing the projects.

Simultaneously, GE and NIBRT revealed plans to create a NIBRT-GE Single-use Centre of Excellence at NIBRT’s Dublin facility, where up to 1,500 bioprocessing professionals per yeaar will be trained on next-generation biologic manufacturing technologies to be used in the park’s new manufacturing facilities.

Subject to contract and planning approvals, GE BioPark Cork will feature Europe’s first KUBio prefabricated, off-the-shelf bio-manufacturing facilities owned and run by the US group’s customers.  GE will make available centralized shared utilities and site services.

When fully operational, the park, which is designed to serve as focal point for further investment in next-generation biopharmaceutical manufacturing in Ireland, is expected to create more than 500 new jobs, with 400 people to be employed with biopharma companies and an additional 100 directly by GE. The project is receiving financial support from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

With patient demand for innovative medicines driving rapid global growth of the biopharmaceutical industry, thus resulting in significant need for more production capacity. GE said its patented KUBiosystem enables pharmaceutical companies to quickly deploy new biologics manufacturing capacity and bring medicines to market faster.

The group said KUBios increase manufacturing flexibility and are 25-50% more cost-effective to build than comparable traditional facilities. Carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by 75%, it claims, with water and energy use cut by around 80%, and build time can be shortened to 18 months from the usual three years.

“The biopharma industry makes a huge contribution to the Irish economy in terms of jobs and manufacturing exports, and is one of the fastest growing sectors,” said Mitchell O’Connor. “Over 28,000 people currently work in biopharma and 6,000 of those work in biologics,” she said. As the subsector is expected to double in the coming years, “all investment and jobs created have a positive knock-on effect on the wider region.”

Ireland has won more than €10 billion in the past 10 years in biotech investment, building on a long history in pharmaceutical manufacturing.