Students from St Vincent’s Secondary School visit Wuxi as part of the school’s programme to encourage them to study STEM subjects
The main Irish manufacturing arm of Hong Kong stock exchange-listed biopharma firm WuXi Biologics recorded “expected” operating losses of €72.5m last year.
In 2023, WuXi Biologics Ireland Ltd continued in a start-up phase, culminating in the first engineering batches for its first client at the biopharma’s plant in Dundalk.
This resulted in revenues increasing more than six fold from €16.1m to €100.2m.
The pre-tax losses of €86.7m take account of finance costs of €14m and the pre-tax loss is a 12-fold increase on that of €6.9m for 2022.
Numbers employed at the campus – which boasts state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities and cutting-edge technology platforms – increased from 401 to 607 as staff costs increased sharply to €49.8m.
WuXi Biologics – which has established itself as a global leader in providing end-to-end solutions for the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of innovative biologics – is investing €325m in its biopharmaceuticals contract manufacturing facility in Dundalk.
During 2023, the Irish unit received a capital injection of €410m as it continued to invest in the Dundalk facility.
The capital contribution strengthened the company’s balance sheet with shareholder funds rising from €799.3m to €1.1bn According to the directors, the focus for 2023 was to complete commissioning, qualification and validation of the MFG7 manufacturing suite.
They said the aim of the MFG6 manufacturing suite was “completing engineering batches for our first client product”. They add that “in parallel, the team continued ongoing recruitment, training activities and preparing for our manufacturing license regulatory audit by the HPRA (Health Products Regulatory Authority) in 2024”.
The directors say the 2023 operating loss “was expected, and driven by the ramp-up of the facility culminating in its first engineering batches for its first client”.
On the company’s future developments, the directors say that, during 2024, the company will complete the commissioning, qualification and validation of MFG6.2.
This will be dedicated to an existing client, thereby doubling their manufacturing capacity.
