'If a med-tech company wants to be a success, setting up in Ireland will give it the best chance'
The €68m Cúram centre wants to entice companies by giving them access to Irish researchers.
A NEW COLLABORATION between Irish universities and industry leaders in medical science has aimed to make Ireland the capital of research and development for med-tech devices.
Some €49 million of the funding for the Cúram centre, a research unit dedicated to the creation of new medical devices, has been sourced from big med-tech companies and Science Foundation Ireland, with €19 million coming from the EU Horizon 2020 programme.
Speaking to Fora, Cúram scientific director Abhay Pandit said the research will focus on developing inventions to address chronic illnesses such as Parkinson’s and heart disease. Findings from this research will be patented for licensing to med-tech companies.
He added Cúram will give Ireland a competitive edge in attracting new med-tech companies that will be able to de-risk the research they are carrying out through work with Ireland’s top university-based scientists.
“Ireland is one of the global hubs of med-tech, but a lot of that activity is in the manufacturing area, but we want to see more activity in the R&D space. This funding will help that,” said Pandit.
“We want this project to help Ireland be even more of a global hub for med-tech devices. In the future, if a new medical device company wants to be successful, setting up in Ireland will give it the best chance to get results.”
Spin-off companies
Pandit said Cúram will create six spin-out companies through collaborations with med-tech businesses and Irish universities as part of the project.
He added that in the long term, the project has the potential to create 30,000 jobs specifically in the medical device sector and will aim to foster a more entrepreneurial approach to medical research.
The Cúram centre, which is based in Galway, already has a deal to collaborate with researchers from UCD, Trinity College Dublin, University of Limerick, University College Cork, The Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and NUI Galway.
Industry partners include a mix of multinationals and indigenous Irish medical companies, including Aerogen, Boston Scientific, Collagen Solutions, Cook Medical, Medtronic, Mylan, Ocean Harvest Technology and Stryker Instruments.
Industry snapshot
Annual exports from the med-tech industry in Ireland exceed €12 billion annually and the sector employs over 29,000 people nationwide, according to the Irish Medical Devices Association.
Roughly three in five of the 450 med-tech companies based in Ireland are indigenous and overall investment in the sector exceeded €300 million last year.
There are a number of other initiatives being run in Ireland at the moment to boost med-tech activity, such as the partnership between The Mayo Clinic and Enterprise Ireland, which has planned to produce 20 medical technology devices over the next five years.
The Cork-based Healthcare Innovation Hub was also created to give companies developing commercial medical products and services access to the HSE in order to test products in a real-life medical setting.
