Chinese company in Louth suspends employee travel to China
Chinese pharmaceutical firm WuXi Biologics, whose campus is in Dundalk, county Louth, has suspended employee travel to and from China as a result of the Coronavirus.
They said the temporary 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 €325m investment on its BioPharma facility in Dundalk which is set to become the largest contract manufacturing single-use biologics production facility in the World.
400 positions will be created in WuXi Biologics operation and another 200 in WuXi Vaccines, which was announced last year.
Currently some 100 people are employed directly by WuXi Biologics and around 1200 are working on site construction.
In a statement about the 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.”
Employees, partners and clients who need interactive engagement within WuXi’s business operations are recommended to conduct meetings by means of video conferences or teleconferences.
“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.”
WuXi has three sites in China and said it has a team of more than 240 scientists “working closely with global organizations to develop and manufacture multiple neutralizing antibodies to potentially treat the virus infection."
