Xeolas Pharmaceuticals has opened a new 158,000 square foot manufacturing and research facility in Baldoyle, Dublin, bringing the Irish specialty pharmaceutical company's research, formulation, clinical supply and commercial manufacturing operations under one roof for the first time.
The facility, officially inaugurated on 16 September 2026, replaces a patchwork of contract manufacturing arrangements the company had relied on since its founding. Xeolas was established in Ireland in 2007 by pharmacist and pharmaceutical executive Damien Flynn, who remains its Chief Executive Officer, and has grown to employ more than 100 scientists, regulatory specialists and manufacturing engineers. Its products now reach patients across 21 countries, with more than 25 candidates in its development pipeline.
“The opening of our new facility is an important milestone for Xeolas and reflects the ambition, expertise and commitment of our entire team,” said Flynn at the opening ceremony. “The progress we have made as a company has been driven by the quality of our people and the depth of scientific, clinical, regulatory and commercial expertise we have in our team. This new facility gives them the capacity to advance more innovative medicines from development through to commercial supply, while creating a strong platform for our next phase of growth.”
Reformulating medicines patients can actually take
Xeolas does not develop new molecules from scratch. Instead, it reformulates established active pharmaceutical ingredients into versions patients can actually take - a strategy that sidesteps much of the clinical risk that comes with discovering new drugs, while still solving real problems in how medicines are delivered. Two products anchor its commercial business: Pedippi, a liquid formulation of omeprazole dosed for infants with reflux disease, and Bonasol, a drinkable alendronic acid solution built to spare osteoporosis patients the swallowing difficulty and oesophageal irritation common with standard bisphosphonate tablets. Both target exactly the kind of patient - very young, or elderly and frail - that conventional tablet formulations tend to underserve.
“Our focus is firmly on patients,” Flynn added. “By building on established medicines and existing clinical evidence, we can move faster and reduce development risk while delivering meaningful new treatment options for people with unmet needs.”
State backing for an Irish exporter
The Baldoyle facility was backed by Enterprise Ireland, part of the state agency's wider push to help indigenous life-science companies scale into export markets. Leo McAdams, Enterprise Ireland's Head of Advanced Manufacturing, Construction and Lifesciences, attended the launch. “Xeolas Pharmaceuticals is at the forefront of innovation in the pharma sector, developing and enhancing medicines to meet patient needs in this critical sector,” he said. “Supporting Irish companies with the ambition to scale globally is a key priority for Enterprise Ireland, and we look forward to working closely with Xeolas to optimise their full international growth potential, creating and sustaining jobs here in Ireland.”
With more than 25 reformulations in development, Xeolas is aiming to use the new site's added capacity to push into markets across Asia-Pacific and the Americas over the coming years - a step that depends on exactly the kind of integrated, in-house manufacturing control the Baldoyle facility was built to provide.
