Why Ireland needs to ride the Life Science wave
In association with The Campus, Cherrywood
Broadly speaking, the life sciences industry comprises companies operating in, or supporting, the research, development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology-based medicines, and medical devices. Within those broad categories are a wide array of sub domains, ranging from biomedical technologies to nutraceuticals, and from food processing to informatics, but for the purposes of this article let’s just define the sector as pharma, biotech and medtech.
Pharma companies develop and distribute innovative and generic (off patent) medicines to cure, treat or prevent diseases and conditions. In 2019 BC (before Covid), the global pharmaceutical industry was worth €1.3 trillion led by companies such as Pfizer, Roche, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis.
Biotech firms use the natural processes of living organisms to manufacture products, food and medicinal products or solve challenges. The global biotech market size was estimated at $500 billion in 2019 and will likely double by 2025. The largest biotech companies include Novo Nordisk, Gilead Sciences, and Allergan.
Medtech companies develop and manufacture medical devices that can be used to diagnose, prevent, monitor, and treat various conditions. A medical device can be an instrument, machine, implant, apparatus, software or a combination of these. Complex unmet patient needs are driving the growth of the medtech industry. In the year 2019, the global medical devices industry was (like Biotech) worth nearly half a trillion euro in 2019, led by companies such as Medtronic, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Johnson & Johnson, and Abbott.
The leading tech giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook have also started making big strides in the medtech and general healthcare area, and they are rapidly leveraging their core strengths to develop ‘Software as a Medical Device’ products and services.
Given the household names above from an Irish perspective, as well as some of the eye watering monetary value at play in the industry, you’ll hopefully appreciate just how big a deal life science is going to be in Ireland’s economic future.
Scale
According to Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, the total Irish life sciences sector across pharma, biotech and medtech, exports more than €45 billion annually and employs over 50,000 people directly (over 80,000 when indirect jobs are included). 20 of the world’s top life sciences companies have a base in Ireland and in the past few years there has been significant expansion among indigenous life sciences start-ups in the Irish market.
Large life science corporates view Ireland as a compelling venue for several well established reasons, ranging from talent to track record to tax. Ireland’s indigenous startup and SME sector meanwhile, has been successful in developing disruptive technologies – such as wearable medical devices, remote diagnostics, bespoke approaches to cell engineering, genomics and developing AI to enable drug development and advanced manufacturing solutions.
So far Ireland has built a reputation largely as a biopharma manufacturing base, but its research and development expertise is also growing and developing in a similar manner to the growth of traditional ‘Tech’ over the last 20 years or so. When the likes of Google, Apple and Facebook first arrived in Ireland, the main employment was centred on service roles, but that changed over time, leading to far more innovation and value-added work being carried out here. The same is likely to happen in life sciences according to innovation stakeholders in Ireland.
“Technology innovation clusters are firmly embedded in Dublin and other cities, and I think we will see the same thing happen in life sciences,” says Ronan Furlong, executive director of DCU Alpha – Dublin City University’s innovation campus. “A lot of the life science activity in Ireland to date has been focused on manufacturing and process, but that’s already bleeding around the edges into the establishment of more innovation and R&D functions.”
The evolution in Life Sciences innovation in Ireland is mirroring the country’s experience with digital technology, with talented people who have ‘graduated’ from the major established corporate players establishing their own start-ups, and driving an indigenous innovation culture in life sciences.
“The further evolution of that trend seems inevitable, and the growth of Dublin-based companies like [home test specialist] LetsGetChecked and [process development company] APC is a great example of that,” says Furlong.
Ireland’s real estate sector will inevitably play a key part in the expansion of life sciences – just as it did with tech in locations like Silicon Docks – because the incoming FDI as well as indigenous start-up and SME businesses need offices and specialist lab facilities.
The recent life sciences innovation start-up incubation and acceleration facility launched at The Campus in Cherrywood by Minister Dara Calleary before Christmas, has provided a major innovation boost to the sector. Developed by Spear Street Capital and operated by The Pioneer Group, the new facility leverages the presence of leading life sciences companies such as Genuity Science, APC, Zoetis and others.
The new Pioneer Group facility provides ‘pay-as-you-go’ wet and dry labs, flexible office and collaboration space, six medium-scale laboratories, 12 starter laboratories and nine office units, with enough room for approximately 15-20 life sciences companies of varying sizes and maturity. On-site, there is also access to dedicated accelerator programmes, a network of 400+ industry mentors and business support including early stage investment funds. Since its opening, the facility has already attracted Inventia Life Sciences from Australia, as well as VLE Therapeutics, a spin-out from APC
Clusters
The lack of suitable real estate could hold the Irish Life Science sector’s expansion back however, and that’s why emerging Life Science cluster locations like The Campus Cherrywood are so important. As the industry continues to grow in Ireland, stakeholders are becoming more aware of the ecosystem needs and wants of this sector, beyond its already established manufacturing footprint or the ‘bricks and mortar’ approach of generic office schemes. This will likely see developers following Spear Street Capital’s example, and partnering with life science innovation specialists like Pioneer Group that have established a track record in activating life science and ‘scitech’ clusters internationally.
“Life sciences lab-enabled office buildings need increased floor-to-ceiling heights, enhanced floor loading capabilities, specialist M&E, generous ‘goods-in’ space, as well as seriously high end HVAC, building services and the riser space to accommodate it” according to Furlong, who is actively exploring an expansion of the DCU Alpha cluster model to cater for this expected growth in demand for Life Science R&D space, in partnership with industry, university researchers and the government.
“What that scenario really needs is a collaborative approach between the real estate industry, the life science sector, higher level institutes, and research centres like NIBRT and SFI’s Insight Centre for Data Analytics (who are already partnering with Pioneer Group in Cherrywood). We in Ireland may not be able to compete with the volume of capital in the Golden Triangle, or other emerging life sciences hubs around London, but we should be able to look at a city like Manchester and say to the industry, ‘Why not come to Dublin or Cork or Galway instead?’”
For more information on life sciences at The Campus visit: thecampus.ie/lifesciences
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers