The creation of 250 jobs by an American medical firm which were expected for early in the new year, will now have to wait indefinitely after the parent company got its feet chilled by the present economic climate.
Abiomed, a 28-year old, Massachusetts-based firm who specialise in the manufacture of miniature pumps to assist heart function, announced in the Radisson SAS on August 5 last year that it would be creating the highly skilled jobs in the former Conormed site in Garrycastle.
The firm, which already employees just over 300 staff worldwide, was planning to open three new production lines in the former Johnson and Johnson-owned facility where they had hoped to manufacture its Impella 2.5 cardiac assist device.
An estimated 200 people lost their jobs here when Conormed closed down in 2007.
However, this week (August 25 ) it was announced Abiomed was to roll back on this promise for the medium term.
“In this tough economy we have to conserve our cash,” said a company spokesperson.
“This means getting the most out of our current facilities before making further investments in the additional facility.”
However, the spokesperson did promise “we are not shutting down or pulling out of Ireland” but just putting the project “on hold” .
On the day of the announcement last year, Michael R. Minogue, CEO of Abiomed believed the new unit would be up and running within 18 months and would be employing highly skilled personnel with mechanical, electrical and polymer engineering experience.
“We chose this Ireland location because it simply met our primary criteria - a great building with existing clean room space, a great workforce, and a strong supplier network," he said.
He indicated that the longer-term plans for the Athlone facility will be to designate Ireland as Abiomed's global centre of excellence for high-volume disposable products.
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan TD, who co-hosted the glory on the day told us: “We faced strong global competition for the investment and it is a fantastic result for Ireland.”
She believed the Midlands record with companies in the medical technologies industry, the availability of a highly skilled workforce and the proximity to the Athlone Institute of Technology with its graduates in engineering and science were not just major attractions to Abiomed but “to many other innovative-driven multinational companies of the same calibre”.
The facility has a total of 33,000 square feet of space including approximately 10,000 square feet of finished clean room space.
