Since it was first developed in 1978, the Viatris pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Little Island, Co Cork has seen a litany of owners. The factory, which makes active ingredients for medicines, was built by Plaistow, a contract manufacturer of drug actives then owned by obscure offshore investors.  Warner-Lambert acquired the facility in 1997 and began to make the cholesterol-busting drug Lipitor there, before it merged into Pfizer in 2000. Three years later, Pfizer made a separate acquisition, the Swedish-based group Pharmacia, which itself had previously taken over US rival Upjohn. In the late 2010s, Pfizer prepared to sell off its…

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