Manufacturing & Supply Chain

The Medicine Accelerator, the Irish multinational group responsible for breakthrough pharma process research and development (APC) and Manufacture (VLE), has announced a groundbreaking expansion that involves the creation of 300 new R&D jobs and a €100 million capital expansion to form a globally unique Medicine Accelerator Campus at Cherrywood in Dublin.

The 130,000 sq ft campus, the largest R&D site in the biopharma sector in Ireland and the expanded home for APC & VLE, will integrate the latest developments in scientific research, AI, neural networks and scientifically led manufacturing activities. This value chain is transforming medicine development and the time to patient for new and advanced therapeutics.

Partnering with eight of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies globally and a wide range of biotechs, APC & VLE work across a wide range of therapeutic areas. The group is currently working on 35+ medicines that transform patient treatment in areas such as oncology, respiratory disease, Alzheimer’s, HIV and more, at its HQ in Dublin.

Serving as a global research epicentre The Medicine Accelerator Campus represents one of the most disruptive businesses in pharmaceutical development, digitalization and manufacturing. At its core, this disruption will be facilitated by three interwoven strategic elements:

1. Best-in-class Science: Advancing the boundaries of pharmaceutical process research and development through a world class team of scientific experts.
2. First-in-class Digital: Accelerating medicine development and manufacturing outcomes through the application of state-of-the-art digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence.
3. Science-First Manufacturing: Driving manufacturing outcomes through industry-first scientific and digitalisation breakthroughs.

The group, which is fully Irish owned, is already the largest employer of R&D scientists, within the pharmaceutical sector, nationally. This addition of 300 new roles will bring the combined team to over 600 scientists, digital experts, and manufacturing professionals bringing The Medicine Accelerator team to a global stage.

This significant growth underscores the organisations’ dedication to fostering talent and creating a powerhouse team to drive advancements in research, digital capabilities and manufacturing. The organisation has also developed iAchieve, a cutting-edge digitalisation platform that meticulously digitizes every facet of a medicine’s development and manufacturing journey. This digital transformation is a step change in medicine R&D and presents huge opportunity for medicine acceleration through AI and other advanced digital applications.

Mark Barrett, CEO and Co-Founder of APC and VLE Therapeutics, says the expansion solidifies APC and VLE’s commitment to advancing innovation in the global pharmaceutical industry. He comments: “Reimagining how medicines are developed and accelerated to patients is our motivation, our purpose. The announcement of an additional 300 new jobs, along with a €100 million capital plan to create a new 130,000 sq ft Medicine Accelerator Campus in Cherrywood, Dublin, demonstrates our confidence in our team to deliver on that purpose. We are 100% behind them, they are simply extraordinary. As an Irish multinational company, it also solidifies our confidence in the biopharma ecosystem in Ireland as a global hub, one that is trusted and central to medicine supply chains globally, to drive further innovation in the areas of pharmaceutical R&D, digitalization, and manufacture.

“This new expansion will further strengthen our competitiveness through increased integration of the latest developments in sustainability, artificial intelligence, and breakthrough science. It will enable our team to reimagine and transform medicine development and manufacture. I am so excited to see our organization pursue such a patient focused mission.

“The support of Enterprise Ireland has been pivotal in accelerating this expansion and we look forward to continuing to work with them on our mission to accelerate medicines to patients.”

The expansion is being supported by Enterprise Ireland, who welcome the creation of high value pharma jobs and the strengthening of Ireland’s position in the global value chain of medicine development and manufacturing.

Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, says: “Enterprise Ireland has been proud to partner with APC, and later VLE, to support its scaling journey since its infancy. The expansion is a huge milestone for this Irish company and we look forward to working with APC and VLE as they continue to grow and scale globally.”