New Shire plant to focus on treatment of rare diseases

 Ground breaking treatments for people with rare genetic diseases will be manufactured in the massive Shire complex at Dunboyne, which will also serve as a European Quality control hub for the company.
With up to 1,000 people working at the at Dunboyne site at the moment, it is a hive of activity between construction workers and Shire staff who have already moved in.
The huge 20,000 square metre complex will eventually employ 400 people in high value jobs in the manufacturing of treatments for rare genetic diseases.
The 400 million investment by the international biotech company is a major boost for Meath along with the recent opening of the Avoca complex nearby and the construction of the Facebook plant a short distance away.
Construction of the Shire complex is due for completion in the middle of next year and Susan Hynes, the site leader at Dunboyne, explains they are now recruiting.
“Our motto is a career with a purpose  and we are looking for a broad mix of graduates in science and engineering, also supply chain and finance and people coming from other industries.
“We are also looking for people who have experience working with other multi-national companies and people with biotech experience.” 
Shire is a leader in the treatment of rare diseases and in Dunboyne they will be manufacturing treatments for rare genetic diseases using the latest technological advances.
“We will be moving away from pharmaceuticals and using living cells to manufacture treatments.  This process, biologics, is the latest technological innovation to meet the medical needs of our patients,” Ms Hynes explains.
“We will be making drugs in very small quantities using single use or disposable technology.”
“The building here in Dunboyne will also be the European hub for quality control and all of the company's biologics treatments will be released to Europe from here.”
The plant will be highly automated and paperless and will be fully up and running in 2019.
A team of 40 Shire employees are currently on-site and there will be 100  operating in Dunboyne by the end of the year. A further 100 will be taken on next year and another 100 in 2020 and again in 2021.
“We offer a very good benefits package and great facilities including a subsidised restaurant and gym facilities. We also have an active wellness programme across all our sites with classes in yoga and pilates and we support further education for our employees.
“We aspire to be the best place to work,” Ms Hynes says.
“We believe it is important too that we see the results of our work and we bring patients to talk to our staff about their lives and what the treatments are doing for them.”
Accommodation doesn't seem to be a problem for new staff to the area
“Some people have relocated here, there is good housing stock and people have bought in this area and are renting here.
“There is a good commuter service and we are beside the M3, so it is convenient.”