Cordis Corporation, Manufacturing Plant, Cashel, Co Tipperary, Republic of Ireland

Cordis Corporation was established in Miami, Florida, US in 1959. The company is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical major Johnson & Johnson and makes medical device products (drug-eluting stents) for patients suffering from coronary artery disease and a variety of other vascular disorders.

In July 2006 Cordis, in conjunction with Johnson & Johnson, decided to make a €100m investment to secure the future of production in Ireland and create a new complement of 460 jobs over a three-year period. This includes 400 people in manufacturing and 60 additional positions at the finished goods testing centre and at the development laboratory.

The new 180,000ft² plant at Cashel in County Tipperary, which combines the functions of manufacturing and development, has been built on a 40-acre site adjacent to Alza (another subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) and a producer of drug delivery systems.

Alza was built in 2001 and is a large-scale manufacturer of products incorporating D-TRANS transdermal technology, such as NicoDerm CQ and Durogesic.

Cordis at Cashel will provide the entire production of drug eluting stents for Johnson & Johnson in all markets outside the US. Alza and Cordis will share some common infrastructure and facilities on the site such as quality control and manufacturing services. The plant, the sixth for Johnson & Johnson in Ireland, became operational in the first quarter of 2008. The investment was supported by the Irish Development Agency (IDA).

Cordis and pharmaceutical products

Cordis is one of the world leaders in producing drug-eluting stents (DES), which offer an effective alternative to open-heart surgery. A drug-eluting stent is a coronary stent that can loosely be described as a supporting scaffold, which is placed into narrowed and diseased coronary arteries and slowly releases a specialised drug that will slow and prevent cell proliferation.

The use of the drug-eluting variety of stent prevents the process of fibrosis that, alongside clots formation, could block the stented artery (restenosis). The stent is usually placed in the coronary artery by an interventional cardiologist during an angioplasty procedure, which is preferable to full-blown open-heart surgery. DES use is now much more preferable to bare metal stents because they have a higher success rate and much lower rates of subsequent major adverse cardiac events (MACE).

Stent and drug combinations

The new facility will use the latest state-of-the-art technologies for stent manufacture and will also develop future drug-device combinations in the field of interventional cardiology with major process and product development capabilities. The new facility includes an 180,000ft² production building along with a development laboratory and a finished goods testing facility.

The new facilities will support demand for the CYPHER family of drug-eluting stents (launched in 2003), including the CYPHER Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent and the CYPHER SELECT Plus Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent. The latter received the CE mark in June 2006 and became available outside the US in the third quarter of 2006. Cordis has a worldwide license with Wyeth for the localised delivery of sirolimus (the active drug in the stent), which is marketed under the name Rapamune by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Extended facilities at Cordis site

Following the opening of the Cordis facility at the start of 2008 there is now an extension project underway at the site. The project involves construction of a new quality control laboratory and an extension to the canteen at the site (the work is being carried out near the cleanroom facilities). Work includes demolition and extension of the existing canteen and office space and construction of a new quality control laboratory and associated infrastructure.

The work on the canteen is being carried out in three phases; two construction phases and a final demolition of the existing canteen to allow continued use of facilities during the construction phase.

The new laboratory will be of single-storey steel and concrete construction with a suspended concrete on metal deck roof to allow for a possible first floor in the future. The architect/engineer for the €5.7m project is PM Group and the builder and civil engineer is L & M Keating Ltd. This project is expected to be completed by December 2008.