Up to 100 new jobs may be created at the Pfizer Pharmaceutical plant in Cork Harbour, which manufactures a key component the male impotence drug, Viagra, Dick Hogan writes.
The drug, which has swept the US with unprecedented demand, has become one of the outstanding successes of the Cork plant, first established in the late 1960s. There is now speculation that a female equivalent of Viagra, which will probably be called Moya, is about to be produced.
At a recent meeting in London involving Pfizer officials from the US and Cork, the establishment of a new production unit at the plant was discussed.
A final decision depends on a go-ahead from the Pfizer board in the US, and full planning approval in Ireland. At present Pfizer employs 320 people and makes a range of products, none of which has received as much publicity as Viagra.
The Cork plant produces the raw material product for the drug, sendinatil, which is then shipped to Pfizer plants in New York and Puerto Rico to be transformed into dosage form. The US authorities have approved the drug, but as yet approval has not been granted in Europe.