A four-year-old business venture launched in the midst of recession by two UCD academics today opened a state of the art process research centre which will add 100 people to the company’s payroll.

The 6,000 sq m premises at Cherrywood Business Park in Dun Laoghaire was offically opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and will facilitate expansion by APC, an innovator in process research solutions for the drugs industry, helping global clients accelerate the development of their medicines.

CEO Mark Barrett and Brian Glennon, his then professor at UCD where Barrett was a postdoctoral student, discovered an opportunity to help pharmaceutical companies make complex new medicines reliably and at scale. Their “cautious experiment”, as Barrett describes it, has since pioneered innovation in the sector and APC now partners with eight of the top 10 pharma and five of the top 10 biotech firms in the world. Over 80% of its services are for export and the company aims to reach revenues of €50m by 2020.

The Cherrywood facility will also house the company’s new headquarters. According to Barrett: “Our success has come from working with talented and creative engineers and scientists. We are looking to expand the team with today's announcement of 100 highly-skilled research and development jobs in chemical engineering, sciences and analytics.

“We need people who enjoy the rewards of working in an environment that is driven by cutting-edge technology and science. In return, we will provide them with an opportunity to do something extraordinary: to help change patient outcomes for the better.”

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