Huge new factory creates 180 new jobs in Offaly

A new multi-million euro facility in Tullamore is supporting 180 jobs and developing cat and dog medicines for world markets, it was revealed today.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Pippa Hackett, and Oireachtas colleagues Barry Cowen and Carol Nolan were taken on a tour of the Zoetis factory at Srah in Tullamore.

The US-owned company has massively increased its size and manufacturing capacity in the IDA business park where it now operates across three sites.

Following a construction project which employed up to 700 at peak, Zoetis has doubled its own workforce in about 12 months.

Key to the expansion is a medicine for osteoarthritic pain in cats, Solensia, which is already being made in the original Zoetis plant in Tullamore.

The new building will be where a sister product, Librela, an osteoarthritis medication for dogs, will be manufactured.

Much of the ground work for the cat medicine was done in Tullamore. “We actually started early stage development on site here. So it wasn't a project that had a simple transfer of existing product from the US. A lot of the technology has been homegrown here to take it through to commercial success at the scale you can see today,” said Conor O'Dea, Zoetis site lead in Tullamore.

In addition to its animal health product plants across the world, Zoetis has operations in Tullamore, Galway, Tallaght and Rathdrum in Ireland.

Solensia is an antibody therapeutic, the first antibody to be approved for animal welfare use by the United States FDA.

“We're very proud that we played a significant role in the development and now the commercial manufacture of this product,” said Mr O'Dea.

The seed which grew into Zoetis as it is today in Tullamore was sown when a human life sciences company, Genemedix, was established in Srah in 2001 and it was taken over by Zoetis and the switch was made to veterinary products.

Zoetis then embarked on a very significant investment programme in Tullamore which has seen the development of a new facility four-and-a-half times the size of the original.

There are three 1,000-litre bioreactors in the existing factory but the new one has eight 2,000-litre bioreactors.

“It's a significant ramp up in terms of our manufacturing capacity.”

For “future proofing purposes”, Zoetis has further land north and south of the new plant and already has planning permission for phase two of the expansion, though a date has yet to be fixed for that.

The company's growth has injected much cash into Offaly and the wider Midlands region with skilled staff attracted from places like Dublin and Limerick.

“The people we have... most of them have life science degrees and they are quite specialist too and they're well paid jobs.”

Minister Hackett welcomed the expansion and said the landscape of the industry was changing with EU regulations, Covid pandemic and Brexit all presenting both challenges and opportunities to the She said animal and human health and the environment are intrinsically linked, as demonstrated by the Zoetis commitment to the 'one health' approach.

“I think that holistic approach is so needed now. We probably need that in other sectors as well...

We tend to look at things in pigeonholes and in silos and sometimes it doesn't work so well when you do that and you need to look at the broader impact.”

The Offaly-based Green Party senator and farmer said that with the world's population growing, collaboration is even more important.

“Things like climate change, seasonal changes and extreme weather events all play a role in changing disease patterns and there are new and emerging diseases cropping up all of the time which present challenges for the animal health industry.

“Industry, in co-operation with regulators and policy makers have an important role to play to ensure the one health approach remains a central focus. Opportunities do however lie ahead. Animal health industry stakeholders are working to address the challenges of reducing anti parasitic resistance through increased herd health programmes and increased use of technology.”

Commenting on the problem of antimicrobial resistance she said a more targeted approach is needed.

“Perhaps the days of the broad spectrum antibiotic are numbered or close to being over.”

Animal husbandry and vaccinations are also important in animal health.

“The support and innovation of companies such as Zoetis play a key role in the sustainability of the animal health sector into the future.”

The Independent TD in Offaly, Deputy Carol Nolan, said the news from Zoetis was very positive.

“It's amazing to see what has come about in 18 months and I just want to commend all the staff and everybody involved,” said Deputy Nolan.

“And acknowledge the important role that you're playing in terms of the manufacturing of products to safeguard livelihoods. If we look at agriculture and the importance of ensuring a county like Offaly, the rural backbone, the economic backbone of the county is agriculture so you're playing a very, very important role there in terms of manufacturing products.”

Responding to a question from Deputy Cowen, Mr O'Dea confirmed the company has other product in the pipeline.

“The existing facility lends itself very well as a pilot plant so we can start bringing in additional products into that facility.”