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A new bioscience facility in Ballina is to provide 60 high-tech jobs in the town when it commences production in 2009.

A new bioscience facility in Ballina is to provide 60 high-tech jobs in the town when it commences production in 2009. Ovagen International Ltd will produce germ-free chickens and eggs for the global vaccine production industry and will be instrumental in the development of new cancer and flu vaccines.

Micheal Martin, Minister for Trade, Employment and Enterprise, formally launched the facility, which will be located at Carrentrilla, just off the Foxford Road.

"This is very good for the town, very good for the region and very good for the country," he said. "It's also very good for the policy areas that the government is interested in - research and development and the development of the life sciences industry and developing in Ireland an ecosystem that can facilitate the growth and development of a value-added biotech and pharmaceutical industry."

Ovagen International's founder and CEO is Ballina native, Leonard Moran, who also brought the Biolabs facility to the north Mayo town in the 1970s. That industry has since become Charles River and is one of Ballina's biggest employers.

Mr Moran said that six years of research brought about Thursday's announcement, which aims to address a major problem in the human vaccine industry that produces 700 million eggs every year.

"The problem that exists in the market at the moment is that the existing supply of eggs are regularly contaminated, which is giving rise to major problems in production, particularly in the human vaccine industry."

He said the jobs would be predominantly for those of a scientific background, which he feels is Ireland's strength at the moment. Minister Martin agreed, saying that it is in the bio-science and pharmaceutical industries where Ballina's future employment lies.

"Mayo has quite a significant number of high-quality medical technology and pharmaceutical companies, and it seems to me the potential is there to create a good cluster in the region," he said.

Construction of the Ovagen facility has begun and is expected to be completed within 18 months. When complete the first phase will consist of 100,000 sq. ft of highly specialised buildings on the eight-acre site. Though Leonard Moran predicted that this may just be the beginning. "There are lots of other potentials for this particular technology. We have major plans down the road, but we're going to stay very focused on this."