Significant jobs blow for Athlone
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the owner of PPD in Athlone, has announced plans to “discontinue operations” at its supply depot in the town which is expected to result in substantial job losses.
The Westmeath Independent understands up to 100 jobs could be impacted by the change at the biopharma company, located in the IDA Business and Technology Park in Garrycastle.
The laboratory facility in Athlone is unaffacted by the news, according to the company, who said they remain committed to its development and growth
In December of 2021, Thermo Fisher Scientific acquired PPD, a leading global provider of clinical research services to the biopharma and biotech industry, for $17.4 billion.
In a company statement issued to this paper today (Friday), Thermo Fisher Scientific said it continuously evaluates its global operations to identify opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness in meeting their customers’ needs.
“As a result, we have proposed plans that, if confirmed, would discontinue operations at our supply depot in Athlone, Ireland, and are in the early stages of a consultation process with potentially affected colleagues. The proposal affects our depot operations only.
“We remain committed to the development and growth of our highly advanced laboratory in Athlone, which performs cutting-edge work to deliver on customers' important research programs for new medicines for patients,” the statement ended.
The company has yet to quantify how many staff are affected and the timeline for the changes in Athlone.
In May of 2021, several months prior to the sale to Thermo Fisher Scientific, PPD announced a significant expansion in the size of their Athlone lab which would result in the creation of 180 extra jobs over the following three years.
The Athlone operation, which in 2021 covered 4,460 square metres (48,000 sq. feet) was extended to 7,710 square metres (83,000 sq. feet) on foot of the expansion news at its Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) laboratory.
PPD confirmed in 2021 that it had nearly 300 employees in Athlone, working to provide analytical services and testing across all phases of pharmaceutical development and commercialisation.
Now over a decade in the town, PPD is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world leader in serving science, with an annual revenue of approximately $40 billion and 100,000 employees worldwide.
Among its industry leading brands are Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services, Thermo Scientific, Patheon and PPD.