Central Pharma today announced it is to establish an EMEA accredited contract packaging and supply centre at the IDA’s Advanced Technology Building in Tralee, Co. Kerry, creating 100 jobs over five years.

The project is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

The privately owned company, with its GMDP-certified Packing Centre of Excellence headquartered in Bedford, UK, is the leading outsource partner to the world’s top pharmaceutical and nutraceutical companies. Central Pharma’s expertise spans a broad range of services, including: primary filling and secondary packing, serialisation and aggregation meeting Falsified Medicines Directive of EU and other global markets, QP release to client/market, warehousing, Controlled Drug storage, regulatory support and supply chain services.

Speaking at today’s announcement in Tralee, Central Pharma’s CEO Alwyn Smit said, “Post Brexit, Ireland offers a stable environment from which to service our European customer base.  We are very excited to establish a best in class operation here as a part of IT Tralee. Thanks to the investment that has been made in IT Tralee, there exists great resource potential here for us to tap into. The  fact that the site is adjacent to a University that has a STEM faculty played a major role in our decision to come here as did the availability of the property itself - IDA’s  Advance Technology Building is an excellent turn-key property solution which is ideal for us.


We want to work together with IT Tralee to expand our digital supply chain solutions for Pharma. Digital innovation and business friendly regulatory compliance is available to us if we master the new technologies now. The campus already has a successful technology incubator. The new Sports Academy being constructed next to our building makes it a very attractive place for young people from all over the world to come and study, get training and find work.

Technical Director Dave Hodgson said: “It is a great opportunity for us to introduce our services into an established Pharma locality with this impressive site and ecosystem to work within.”

Welcoming the announcement, Minister of State Brendan Griffin TD said: “This is a hugely positive development for Tralee, Kerry and the entire South West region. The Government is fully committed to regional development and ensuring that every community benefits from the growth in employment across the economy. I warmly welcome these additional  100 jobs for Kerry, which is a great boost to the economy of the county. Behind each of these 100 jobs are real people and real households and these jobs are so important to them. I wish the company and their employees every success for the future.”
 
CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan said: “The project is a significant investment for Tralee, Kerry and the South West Region which will benefit the local economy and create a substantial number of jobs.   It will add significantly to the Life Sciences cluster in the region and act as an excellent reference seller for IDA for further investment into the region.  It has also proved the value of IDA Ireland creating these Advance Technology Buildings and Advance Office Buildings in regional locations to strengthen their offering in working to attract Foreign Direct Investment. I wish Alwyn and the company every success here.”

For more information on careers at Central Pharma Limited, email ASmit@central-pharma.com

About the company
Central Pharma Limited is a privately-owned contract packaging company headquartered in Bedford in the UK, which handles products supplied to over 60 countries worldwide. The company employs 160 people at its Bedford site, which services the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry. The company’s expertise spans a broad range of services from primary filling and secondary packing, through to onward distribution. Pharmaceutical products are imported into EU, qualified by release testing in controlled laboratories, before being released to markets by Central Pharma QPs.

Central Pharma was the UK’s first contract packing organisation to serialise and aggregate products for worldwide markets, including China, Korea and India. The supply chain has already been validated against the EU Falsified Medicines Directive requirements and serialization data management is via, proven, licensed Tracelink software interface. Having invested heavily in cutting edge software and technologies, it is aiming to become the world’s first fully integrated digital packing site, offering Big Data control experience to its customers. Global territories served include Europe, Asia, America, Canada and Australia.