MSD VACCINE & BIOLOGICS STERILE FACILITY

MSD VACCINE & BIOLOGICS STERILE FACILITY

MSD VACCINE & BIOLOGICS STERILE FACILITY

Merck Sharp & Dohme’s Vaccine and Biologics Sterile Facility, an expansion on the existing 65-acre site originally built by PJ Hegarty in 2008, was the first standalone human vaccine project in Ireland. The new €14.5m facility is a multi-storey structure in excess of 10,000m² that marks the company’s first green-field sterile processing facility built outside the US.

Client : Merck Sharp & Dohme Biologics (Ireland) Ltd.
Service : Pharma/hi-tech
Architect : PM Group
Quantity surveyors : PM Group
Structural engineer : PM Group
Services engineer : PM Group
Value : €14.5 million

It involved construction of a high-tech and large-scale laboratory, as well as plant rooms, cleanrooms, production areas, testing and inspection zones, and an administrative building housing offices and meeting rooms.

PJ Hegarty was awarded the contract after successfully completing the original Sustaining Operation Facility at Carlow IDA Business and Technology park. For the expansion, we managed a broad team of specialised subcontractors to ensure adherence that all work was carried out to the highest standards. Tailored site-works packages were provided to every subcontractor with critical milestones set for each component, so that multiple detailed plans and interacting timelines came together on time.

As well as leading construction on this greenfield site, other high-spec work included the build and fit-out of specialised noise-and-vibration-sensitive research laboratories, plus the full mechanical and electrical install and integration of complex services. Additional car parking facilities and landscaping were also completed.

In 2013, the MSD Carlow vaccine facility won the Operational Excellence Category Award at the ISPE Facility of the Year Awards. It also won the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) Construction Industry Safety Excellence Award (Best International Project) and received a NISO Irish safety award.