Chinese pharma firm in Dundalk suspends travel to and from China

Chinese pharmaceutical firm WuXi Biologics, whose campus is in Dundalk, Co Louth, has suspended employee travel to and from China because of the coronavirus.

They said the travel ban, which has been in place since late January, was put in place, “to prioritise the health, safety and wellbeing of its employees”.

In 2018 the company announced a €325 million investment in its biopharma facility in Dundalk which is set to become the largest contract manufacturing single-use biologics production facility in the world.

Some 400 positions will be created in the WuXi Biologics operation and another 200 in WuXi Vaccines, which was announced last year.

Currently, 100 people are employed directly by WuXi Biologics and about 1,200 are working on site construction.

In a statement about the Covid-19 virus, the company said the temporary travel ban, “will continue until further notice pending guidance from the World Health Organisation and international health agencies that normal business travel can safely resume.”

‘Interactive engagement’

It advised anybody who needed “interactive engagement within WuXi’s business operations” to consider tele or video conferences.

“WuXi’s Dundalk Campus has established rigorous monitoring of international staff travel in order to monitor the global situation, to avoid unnecessary travel and to discuss anything that the business can do to mitigate against the risk of corona virus contact,” the company said.