Regeneron invests further $350 million in Ireland

US biotech firm Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: REGN) is investing an additional $350 million in its Limerick Industrial Operations and Product Supply (IOPS) bioprocessing campus in Ireland.

This will add another 200 jobs, bringing the total expected job creation in the Limerick area to 500 jobs and total investment to $650 million by the end of 2017. The extra capacity it needed for the production of drugs such as Regeneron’s successful ophthalmic agent Eylea (aflibercept), marketed with Germany’s Bayer, as well as recently-approved cholesterol-lowerer Praluent (alirocumab), co-developed with France’s Sanofi.

The company acquired the former Dell Computer facility in Limerick and achieved planning approval in April 2014 for its first IOPS site outside of the USA. When the investment was initially announced in December 2013, a $300 million investment with 300 jobs was planned for delivery by the end of 2016. With this expansion of scope, the Limerick IOPS campus will house the largest-scale bulk biologics production facility in Ireland.