DUBLIN (Reuters) -Pfizer is to begin producing a key ingredient for its COVID-19 vaccine at an Irish facility for the first time, the U.S. drugmaker said in a statement on Wednesday.
An existing Pfizer facility at Grange Castle in Dublin will produce “mRNA drug substance” with output to begin by the end of the year, the statement said.
Setting up production will cost $40 million and will employ 75 people, it said.
“Given the extensive technical transfer process, on-site development, equipment installation and regulatory approvals needed for the site, we expect it will be brought onto the network by the end of 2021.”
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin welcomed the development in a Twitter post as “great news… that puts Ireland at the heart of the EU’s fight against the pandemic”.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries, editing by Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
