A unique collaboration revolutionises the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland

Pharmaceutical manufacturing contributes vitally to Ireland’s economy: it employs over 25,000 individuals directly and 24,500 indirectly, and produces over 50% of all exports, making Ireland the second-largest pharmaceutical exporter in the world . However, the sector faces several global challenges: the emergence of lower-cost economies; the ‘patent cliff’; and the rise of generic medicines. It has also suffered from a lack of cohesion between research and industry and poor fundamental understanding of certain pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. The Synthesis & Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC) has collaborated with industry to optimise these pharmaceutical processes, enabling Ireland to confront many of the global challenges above. Resulting gains in productivity have saved tens of millions of euros for Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry. Additional impacts include job creation and retention; a broad collaborative network for sharing expertise; greener manufacturing processes. Ireland is becoming a global hub of pharmaceutical process innovation and advanced manufacturing.