Alan Hobbs
Manager, High Potential Start-Ups (Lifescience & Sustainability) Enterprise Ireland
Ireland is a globally recognised hub for medtech, biopharma and life sciences. We have a substantial network of innovative startups and established companies helping improve patient outcomes in Ireland and abroad.
Despite a challenging year following the pandemic, Enterprise Ireland life sciences companies grew employment by 10% in 2022 to over 10,000 and accounted for sales of €2.5 billion — of which €2.1bn was recorded as exports.
Allowing startups to innovate
Combined with multinational companies, Ireland is the second largest medtech exporter in Europe — with the industry employing 45,000 across 350 companies working across several areas, including medical devices, BioPharma, digital health, diagnostics and research.
The year 2022 was a bumper year for life sciences startups, particularly for companies working across drug discovery and development, cardiovascular, femtech and robotics — all of which have a background in deep tech and research. These startups are attracting global attention from large multinationals and international VCs because of the levels of innovation involved and the talent and expertise behind these growing companies.
These teams have been supported by Enterprise Ireland since their inception through needs-led innovation programmes and commercialisation funding for third-level research and/or through High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) funding.
Combined with multinational companies, Ireland is the second largest medtech exporter in Europe.
Expanding treatments and advancing health
Furthermore, many have been successful in attracting funding from the Irish Government’s Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF) and through the EU’s Horizon Europe European Innovation Council (EIC) programmes.
Some examples of these include Atxa Therapeutics (based in University College Dublin) working on innovative, life-changing treatments for cardiopulmonary diseases; Ostoform working on improving skin health and quality of life for patients who have an ostomy; Versono with a mission to develop solutions for successful treatment of all vascular occlusions; and Novus Diagnostics using AI to diagnose and identify patients at high risk of progression of acute diseases.
Delivering global ambitions
We are fortunate in Ireland to have a vibrant support infrastructure from the Health Innovation Hub (HIHI) and clinical trial liaison officers who work closely with Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) to help accelerate product and market validation with trials in living labs and with KOLs in hospitals all over the country. These supports extend globally with hospital partnerships in North America, Asia and most recently in the Middle East, overseen by Enterprise Ireland Market Advisors based in our 40 overseas office network. We are committed to helping them scale and deliver on their global ambitions and look forward to supporting many more in 2023 and beyond.