The biopharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma is expanding its manufacturing facility in Tralee, Ireland.
The expansion at Kerry Technology Park represents the next phase of development at Astellas’ Tralee facility and will include the installation of the new aseptic filling line and associated manufacturing infrastructure.
The company develops and manufactures medicines across areas including oncology, immunology, neuroscience and women's health.
Astellas said the additional line will double the site's drug-product manufacturing capacity.
The facility is designed to support processes including compounding, sterile aseptic filling and lyophilisation.
The project builds on the site's groundbreaking in March 2024 and is expected to create additional highly skilled roles across engineering, production, quality, logistics and support functions by 2029.
€330m manufacturing facility
The Tralee facility was originally announced as a €330m investment by Astellas.
The site has a total floor area of approximately 17,000 sqm, with a building footprint of around 7,300 sqm, on a 45-acre site.
The investment was announced in 2023 as part of Astellas' plans to expand its capacity and capabilities for aseptic drug products and reinforce the supply of its medicines.
The facility forms part of Astellas' global manufacturing network and is focused on drug-product manufacturing rather than the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Astellas has not disclosed a separate value or floor area for the newly announced expansion.
Second aseptic filling line
The new filling line and associated manufacturing infrastructure will increase the capacity of the Tralee site as it develops its drug-product manufacturing operations.
The investment is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.
The expansion is also expected to support additional employment across engineering, production, quality, logistics and other technical and operational functions, with the company expecting the additional roles to be created by 2029.
