Novartis reflects on key milestones

Fri, 08 Sep, 2017 - 01:00

Joe Dermody

Shane Relihan, a native pf Cobh, has just taken on the role of managing director for the chemical operations manufacturing site. He succeeds Dorothea Lederberger, who is returning to the Novartis headquarters in Basel to take up a role in its biologics, technical development and manufacturing unit.

As a global group, Novartis is a giant, employing 118,000 people, with €110bn in capital assets and revenues of over €40bn generating around €6bn in profits annually. Its main activities include pharmaceuticals, eye care and generics. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world.

Shane Relihan, now 42, returned to Ireland in January 2016 to take on a global role based at Ringaskiddy. With Novartis for the past 17 years, he had moved to Switzerland in 2006, where he held a number of leadership roles within the Novartis manufacturing network. He also spent 18 months in a lead role in Germany.

Many of those working with Shane in Ringaskiddy have known him ever since his school days in Cobh. Now, they may also see him at weekends playing tennis or attending his son and daughter’s sports events.

Novartis has always engaged in community activities in the harbour area.

For local communities, the company’s CSR activities will now feel closer than ever, being led by one of their own, someone who has been part of the company’s growth trajectory for almost two decades.

“Novartis has changed utterly and not at all,” says Shane. “In that time, we have introduced a lot of innovative new products. We have a great focus on the patient populations we support, and we’re doing more work in niche patient areas, in some cases with smaller volumes and higher potency.

“We are where we want to be in the business. The company is constantly innovating, bringing in new products and new manufacturing steps. Everybody in our Irish operations wants to keep the business at the leading edge. To remain there, we need to constantly find new ways to be more competitive so that we remain a preferred supplier for Novartis.

“Then I walk through the plant and I see a lot of people I’ve known since my school days. In fact, a lot of people I went to school with are working in healthcare companies in the harbour cluster. There are so many fantastic companies here, it really is great for the future of the area.

“My own children may not follow me into science, but it’s great that this cluster of companies offers them some very visible options for the future. I feel a responsibility towards the patients Novartis serves; I also feel a responsibility towards Cork Harbour and to the communities living here.”

The Novartis board of directors alongside the local leadership teams for Novartis Ringaskiddy Ltd and Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd Branch Ireland.

He shares those commitments with Jerh Collins, the Kinsale native unveiled as the group’s new global chemical operations head, based in Basel and responsible for all chemical operations globally, including the Ringaskiddy plant. Both Shane and Jerh were on hand to welcome Novartis chairman, Joerg Reinhardt, and his fellow board members on visits to the company’s Irish premises.

This was the first time in the 25-year history of Novartis in Ringaskiddy for the full board to visit. The Novartis board also visited the company’s operations in Dublin. The company currently operates manufacturing facilities in Ringaskiddy and Model Farm Road Cork, and its commercial operations are located in Dublin.

A leading investor in the Irish healthcare sector, Novartis employs more than 1,600 highly skilled people. Of those, around 600 people are employed in Ringaskiddy, working with Novartis Ringaskiddy Limited (NRL) and Novartis International Pharmaceutical Ltd, Branch Ireland (NIPBI).

NRL is operational since 1994. It manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients for a range of oncology, respiratory cardiovascular, dermatology, central nervous systems and transplantation medicines.

The Novartis footprint in Ireland began with its manufacturing facility in Ringaskiddy, which was originally a Sandoz site. Many of the first employees remain Novartis employees to this day. A strong source of employment in the Cork region over the intervening years, many employees have gone on to develop their careers with Novartis in leadership roles both in Ireland and within the Novartis global network.

Meanwhile, NIPBI was established in 1998. It is a global service centre offering technical and business services through a number of functions, including external supply operation, international service laboratory, supply chain, procurement, finance and strategy.

In terms of community engagement, one landmark activity is the annual Community Partnership Day which sees Novartis employees in Ireland and across the globe nominate community projects and engage in volunteering. On May 17 this year, more than 24,400 Novartis associates took part with the teams at Novartis Ringaskiddy supporting six local community projects.

Novartis also hosts an annual 5K Road Race and this year celebrated its 20th anniversary on August 2. A hugely popular event, the race under BHAA rules saw competitors across the county and beyond come to Ringaskiddy to compete.

“It is important to collaborate with the local community,” said Shane. “Our volunteers go out and help with schools and with community-based schemes to improve the harbour area. The highly skilled and highly engaged people we have in the company are our greatest asset.

“Over the years, I have seen a lot of people upskilling and improving themselves through ongoing training and education. We are also lucky to have such a highly skilled population around us in Ireland. We are in constant contact with third level education, and with the schools.”

Many Novartis staff have attended training in the Cork Training Centre Biopharma (CTCB) facility in Carrigaline, a specialist life science training facility established in 2006. In-house training is a constant feature at the Novartis Ringaskiddy campus. The company currently has two IBEC students on site.

Novartis also maintains constant links with schools. Earlier this year Novartis Ringaskiddy took part in iWish 2017 promoting STEM to young, female secondary school students and during the month of May Novartis Ringaskiddy was recognised by CTCB in Carrigaline for its collaboration throughout the last decade of providing biopharma operational training in life science manufacturing.

“I think that I owe my own love of science to Declan Kennedy, my chemistry teacher in school in Cobh,” said Shane. “He gave the entire class a great love for the subject. A number of people who were in that class have gone on to work in chemistry in China and the USA.

“I always look back at what shapes you. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a town with a good, clean environment, with great schools and good prospects.”

He is also keenly aware of the debate surrounding long-promised plans to develop the M28 motorway from Cork to Ringaskiddy.

The harbour industries say the road was always an essential part of the cluster’s long-term future strategy, but some community groups are resisting the impacts to their localities and to the local environment.

“In the 1980s, when I was a child, the local roadways were terrible,” recalls Shane Relihan. “We have done a lot of work to improve, but we need to more to improve the road network in the harbour area. We need to ask if we have the right roads that we need for the future.

“It is extremely important for us in Novartis that we remain a great neighbour to our local communities. We also need to support the growth of industries in the area, to create future employment options for the next generation of communities living in the area.”

Novartis in Ireland