Jacobs wins €350 million ‘bio-plant’ contract

US-based construction firm Jacobs Engineering has won the contract to oversee the development of a €350 million drug manufacturing facility in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland.

The biomanufacturing facility will be constructed according to ‘Factories of the Future’ principles – a concept developed by the European Union and intended to advance manufacturing research and innovation.

WuXi Biologics will operate the plant – its first outside of China – which is expected to provide 400 highly skilled jobs over five years, as well as providing positions for some 700 construction workers.

The 26 ha site will incorporate traditional fed-batch or perfusion process and continuous bioprocessing, a next-generation processing technology using selected single-use cell culture and fixed stainless-steel elements for purification.

When completed, the facility will be one of the world’s largest to use single-use bioreactors, capable of producing over 50,000 litres of biologic drugs.

Jacobs Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities senior vice president and general manager, Ken Gilmartin, said, “This project shows how we partner with our life sciences clients to advance cutting-edge facilities and drug therapies, while supporting the communities where we live and work.

“WuXi has given us the opportunity to deliver a state-of-the art project to help them serve a global patient population, while furthering the ambition to make Ireland a global centre of excellence in biologics, driving investment in Co. Louth and creating highly skilled jobs.”