Novo Nordisk withdraws from Grange Castle ‘mega factory’
DANISH pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk is withdrawing its planning application to build a plant in Grange Castle.
As first reported in the Sunday Times, the decision to withdraw the planning application could see the loss of 1,100 new jobs and another 2,000 jobs during construction for the “mega-factory” which would have gone into building the 147,000 sq m facility at Grange Castle Business Park.
Plans for the site containing 85 acres of land at Grange Castle West for €51m was a deal hailed as “big news for the county and Ireland” when it was announced 12 months ago, according to South Dublin County Council.
The deal for the council owned land also included the option for the pharma giant to acquire a further 21 acres, however the acquisition will not go ahead.
Grange Castle was one of a number of European sites Novo Nordisk was looking at. In a statement, Novo Nordisk said the decision comes after “an assessment” of the project at Grange Castle Business Park in Clondalkin.
“Following an assessment, Novo Nordisk has made the decision to stop project activities in Grange Castle Business Park in Ireland,” they said.
“As a consequence, we will withdraw our planning application and not complete the acquisition of the land.
“We thank our partners in Ireland for their strong support and look forward to continuing our presence and collaboration in the country, including at our recently acquired Athlone facility, which will provide Novo Nordisk with additional development and manufacturing capacity for current and future oral products.”
It is understood that expansion at the Athlone plant, which employs 400 people, is for different purposes to the Grange Castle project.
Plans submitted for the Grange Castle facility to “provide new innovative medicines for diabetes and other serious chronic diseases such as obesity” included proposals for 500 staff in administration and 600 in production.
Based on other projects by Novo Nordisk, the cost of construction at Grange Castle was likely to have reached €2bn.
