240 jobs at risk in Roche pharmaceutical facility Co. Clare
The Roche facility in Clarecastle, Ennis, Co. Clare
Pharmaceuticals company Roche is pulling out of four of its facilities worlwide, including its site in Clare, with 240 jobs set to go unless a replacement firm is found.
The company’s Clarecastle site has 240 employees who are now at risk of losing their jobs, with the company looking for a buyer to take on the facility and staff.
The giant pharmaceutical operator is spending around $1.6bn on restructuring its business with parent company, Roche Holding, withdrawing from facilities in Ireland, Spain, Italy and the US.
There will be 1,200 job losses worldwide, with plans to withdraw from the sites to be completed by 2021.
Roche has been in operation in Ennis for over 40 years and the news appears to have come completely out of the blue.
Roche’s profits, at €9.45m last year, were down €2m on 2013, with revenues falling 20 percent.
The company’s portfolio is shifting toward biologics, with a new generation of “specialised medicines based on small molecules” requiring a whole new operation.
This shift has resulted in Roche Holding investing in a new Swiss facility, while major investment has gone into its biologics manufacturing capacity in the past two years.
MD Gerry Cahill said the decision was taken as a result of a drop in requirement for the product the plant manufactures.
He said they would continue to manufacture drugs but in much smaller volumes and therefore a smaller site would be needed.
Mr Cahill said failure to find a buyer would result in the first redundancies being offered next year.
