Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC (www.amneal.com), a US-based generic drug manufacturer, has purchased the 200,000-sq-ft  former Johnson & Johnson plant in Cashel, Co Tipperary, as it looks to spur a European expansion, and confirmed that when the facility is refitted and completed it would seek to hire between 250 and 300 staff.

The Cashel site will be dedicated to R&D and production of metered dose and dry powder inhalers (MDIs and DPIs) as well as biosimilars – all high-end specialty medications - with each product occupying approximately 50 per cent of the building.  [caption id="attachment_23200" align="alignright" width="250"] Chintu Patel, Amneal co-CEO and co-chairman[/caption] “Our new Ireland facility is critical to Amneal’s long-term global growth, in Europe, the US and throughout the world,” said Chintu Patel, Amneal co-CEO and co-chairman.  From its start in 2002 as a contract drug manufacturer, Amneal has grown dramatically to its current position as the seventh largest US generics supplier by volume. Amneal is targeting expansion in Europe, Australia, Japan, southeast Asia and Latin America. The former Johnson & Johnson plant was sold by owner Solidus Private Equity, a Singapore-based investment firm. Amneal worked closely with Foreign Direct Investment agency IDA Ireland. Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland said: “That Amneal has chosen to locate in a facility that had been occupied previously is especially pleasing and is a credit to the IDA executives who are advertising ready-to-go sites just like this in boardrooms across the world on a daily basis.”