Exciting Plans for New Cork Based Biotech, BioMarin, Announced at Rare Disease Day Event

25 June 2012

In celebration of BioMarin's first anniversary of joining the Cork biotech community, the international biotechnology company held a Rare Disease Day Event at their Shanbally facility on Friday June 22nd. 

The event highlighted the progress that has been made in developing therapeutic options to treat rare genetic orphan diseases. By cultivating expertise in research, development and manufacturing, and by rapid clinical and regulatory development, BioMarin is focused on providing access to treatment and support services to patients around the world suffering from rare and genetic diseases.

The event provided invited guests with the opportunity to meet some of the key Irish and International BioMarin personnel, and find out more about the exciting plans for the plant. Speaking at the event, Dr. Robert Baffi, Executive Vice President, Technical Operations, BioMarin also announced details of their significant recruitment drive at the facility which is planned to commence later this year. Dr. Baffi said "We are delighted to announce that we expect our expansion into Ireland will create 100 plus jobs in the 2013-2015 timeframe. A handful of positions will open later this year and to fill these and other positions, we are preparing for a biotech career day on September 12th here at the facility. This is an exciting development for us and big news for the region at large."

Dan Maher, Senior Vice President of Product Development at BioMarin presented guests an overview of development strategies for therapeutics to treat rare diseases. He said "BioMarin has a track record of commercialising therapeutics for rare orphan diseases, and has a robust pipeline of potential treatments ready for eventual manufacturing here in Shanbally."

Other key experts in the field of rare diseases gave presentations on a number of different areas, including Christian Hendriksz, MD, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Adult Inherited Metabolic Disorders, who gave an introduction to Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS), one of the diseases treated by BioMarin products. Eibhlin Mulroe, CEO of the Irish Platform for Patients' Organizations, Science & Industry then discussed the importance of patient organisations, pharmaceutical companies and academia working together to facilitate treatment options and patient care. 

David Hackett, Chair of the Irish MPS Society provided perspective on the challenges of raising awareness and the difficulties facing patients with rare diseases; while Elena McGauran, Patient and Member Irish MPS Society shared her story on living with MPS.

Following the presentations guests were brought on tours of the state-of-the-art facility, which was recognised by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) as recipient of their 2010 Facility of the Year award for Sustainability. Following this, guests had the opportunity to learn more about rare diseases and the therapeutics being developed at BioMarin.

For more information on BioMarin, development plans and rare diseases treated by their products, visit www.BMRN.com.