* Jobs in manufacturing and research and development
* Mylan to invest up to $100 million per year for five years
DUBLIN, April 18 (Reuters) – Generics drug maker Mylan
is to hire 500 people in Ireland in an expansion
programme worth up to 380 million euros ($500 million), i n a
boost for the indebted euro zone country’s key pharmaceutical
sector.
Mylan, the world’s third-largest generic drugmaker, said on
Wednesday it will increase its Irish workforce to 1,200 by 2016,
adding jobs in manufacturing and research and development.
Enterprise minister Richard Bruton said the investment was
“a massive boost for the country.”
Bailed out by the EU/IMF in late 2010 and midway through a
punishing eight-year austerity drive, Ireland has an
unemployment rate of 14.3 percent, its highest since 1993 and
more than three times the level of 2007.
Ireland exported 26 billion euros worth of pharmaceutical
and medical products last year, 28 percent of its total goods
exports.
The life sciences sector, which employs around 50,000, has
made a key contribution to the balance of payments surplus that
has fueled optimism in recent months that Ireland may be the
best-placed of Europe’s peripheral economies to export its way
out of debt.
Pittsburgh-based Mylan, which has a global workforce of
18,000, expects revenue this year of $6.8-$7.2 billion.
Its investment of up to 76 million euros ($100 million) per
year for five years will focus on the company’s respiratory
franchise and injectables platform.
