Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility, Kinsale

In December 2006 Eli Lilly made a commitment to invest around $400m in a biologics manufacturing facility. The IE42 bio-technology manufacturing facility is located at the company's Kinsale site near Dunderrow in County Cork. The site amounts to 20.96 hectares.

The Kinsale site is one of six bulk manufacturing sites for Eli Lilly worldwide. It first opened in 1981 and currently employs about 450 personnel, who are involved in the manufacture of active ingredients for a number of important drugs. These include Zyprexa (olanzapine) for treatment of schizophrenia and Evista (raloxifene) for the prevention of osteoporosis.

The new biopharmaceuticals facility, which will open in phases, will employ 200 new personnel and will produce drugs to treat illnesses including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Commercial operation is expected to begin in 2012. The plant has been sponsored by the Irish Development Agency (IDA Ireland), Irish Government and local authorities who have provided major support for Eli Lilly.

Eli Lilly chose its existing Dunderrow site for the new manufacturing facility due to the availability of personnel and the support from IDA Ireland.

The foundation laying ceremony for the new manufacturing building occurred on 7 April 2008. The 158,000ft² (15,607m²) three-storey facility took two years to build and was completed in 2010.

New biopharmaceutical facility

The site will is used for the commercial development of mAb technology at Kinsale. To provide quality personnel for the facility Eli Lilly has entered into an agreement with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT).

There is also a research collaboration between the NIBRT and Eli Lilly's Biologics Research and Development Organisation (BR&D) in Indianapolis, US. This agreement involves the co-development of analytical technologies to enable the monitoring of cell culture conditions.

Contractor

The Bowen Group subsidiary BMD & Co was chosen to carry out a major section of the biotech facility installation. In May 2008 BMD was given a contract for the fabrication and installation of the process piping at the plant, many of which are modular. As part of the same project BMD was also be responsible for installation and upgrade of the utility services to support both the new biotech facility and existing production buildings at Kinsale.

The project manager for the facility construction and outfitting was a team from Eli Lilly SA. The plans were made by Jacobs Engineering and the structural engineering was carried out by Arup Consulting Engineers.

The main contractor was ohn Sisk & Son and the civil contractor was Rohcon. The environmental engineers were Fehily Timoney & Company and the archaeologist was Sheila Lane & Associates.

The construction project involved a three-storey pharmaceutical biotech manufacturing facility, which included integral administration, laboratory, storage facilities and utilities with additional piped services carried on pipe bridges linking the adjacent IE30 facility.