Biotechnology company, Amgen, will become the largest company to invest in Cork in recent times, after it cleared its first planning hurdle on the way to constructing a massive biotechnology plant. Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology company - manufacturing therapeutics based on cellular and molecular biology - is proposing to invest in a 800 million euro plant and employ upwards of 1,100 people. Around 750 of the workforce will be comprised of third-level science graduates. Recruitment is expected to get underway towards the end of 2007 with production set for sometime in 2009.