Spanish healthcare firm opens €100 m Grange Castle facility
By Maurice Garvey
GLOBAL bio-pharma group Grifols celebrated the opening of its €100 million facility in Grange Castle Business Park today – creating 140 new jobs in the process.
The investment by the Spanish healthcare company increases the number of multi-national pharmaceutical giants operating in Clondalkin – Pfizer and Alexicon Pharmaceuticals are already established in Dublin 22.
Micorsoft and Google also have data centres in Grange Castle Park. Grifols bioscience division global operations centre is the first-ever life-sciences investment by a Spanish company in Ireland.
Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, Spanish ambassador to Ireland, José María Rodríguez Coso and High Commissioner for Marca España, Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, attended the opening.
Visitors enjoyed a guided tour of the impressive facility, which includes a new warehouse, distribution, packaging and logistics building, along with a link annex and a three-storey administration office block for Grifols Worldwide Operation Ltd.
Construction started on the Grifols building in January 2014. South Dublin County Council approved permission for Grifols to purchase the 11-hectare site at Grange Castle for over €6 million – subject to a 999-year lease.
Barcelona-based company Grifols make products derived from blood plasma, for patients with rare genetic diseases and infections, as well as medical devices. The company employs 11,600 staff worldwide.
The company was founded after the Spanish Civil War by Dr Jose Grifol who patented the process of ‘freeze-drying’ human blood plasma. In the early 1950s, Grifol developed the process of extracting plasma while re-injecting red blood cells back into the donor – a technique that was embraced globally.
