In a room buzzing with international journalists, public relations consultants, and the CEOs and presidents of Ireland’s top life science companies, Rosemary Durcan takes a break from the 2011 Med in Ireland conference to discuss what makes Ireland such a great place for biotech.

“Basically, we have a lot of seed capital available in Ireland, which is fantastic. And that means that companies can get started, de-risk their business a little, add value to their product, and then attract bigger venture capitalists,” says Durcan, Senior Commercialization Specialist in the Life Science and Food Division at Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland, the government agency responsible for the funding, development and international growth of innovative start-up companies in Ireland, provides matching funds to capital invested by start-up companies.

Although Ireland’s global image has been tarnished by the country’s financial woes, Ireland works to build an international reputation as one of the best places for biotech business. The life sciences contributed more than €1 billion ($1.4 billion) in sales for Irish bioscience companies and €760 million ($1 billion) in exports in 2010, and despite the global economic crisis, the sector grew 13 per cent in exports and seven per cent in employment last year. The 2011 Med in Ireland conference in October, the largest event and national showcase in Ireland for the Irish medical technologies sector, hosted more than 650 international guests and shows that Ireland wants the world to know it is open for business.

“Biotech is huge for us,” says T. J. Hughes, Senior Develop–ment Director at Enterprise Ireland. “Just north of 50 per cent of our overall exports come from the life science sector in one way or the other.”

Open for business
On Ireland’s lush southwest coast reside some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer, Merck, Janssen—they’re all there. The cluster surrounds the city of Cork. In the last few years, Ireland has received $5 billion in investment from pharmaceutical companies.

Most recently, Genzyme opened a €150 million ($200 million) expansion in Waterford, a county just east of Cork. The investment increased the capacity at Genzyme’s manufacturing operation, development capability, laboratory facilities and offices.

In 2010, Merck & Co Inc. completed the construction of a €220 million ($300 million) strategic vaccine facility in Carlow at the Industrial Development Agency Business and Technology Park. Carlow is one of the largest inland towns in Ireland and is located 83 kilometres from Dublin.

And Pfizer will invest about €145 million ($200 million) in its biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing facility at Grange Castle, just outside Dublin. Pfizer’s facility at Grange Castle is one of the world’s largest biotech manufacturing sites, producing Pfizer’s two blockbuster medicines—Enbrel and Prevenar 13.

The reasons why life science companies choose to do business in Ireland are the same reasons why companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and IBM settle in Ireland. Ireland is part of the European Union and gives companies access to a large market. And the Irish are educated. “One of the things we hear most is access to a well-educated workforce,” says Hughes. “So the Irish educational system can certainly compete internationally. Ready access to a skilled and innovative workforce is often cited as one of the main reasons companies come and work here.”

Richard Cooke, CEO of Lincor Solutions, based at the Cork Business and Technology Park, says Ireland attracts a lot of multinational companies. Cooke says about 25 per cent of the U.S. multinationals that are in Europe have their headquarters in Ireland. For a country that is about one per cent of the European population, but has 25 per cent of the foreign direct investment coming in, this says a lot.

While a young, skilled workforce may be cited as one of the main reasons companies choose Ireland, according to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, Ireland is the easiest country in Europe in which to pay business taxes, and the sixth easiest country in the world. The report assesses the administrative burden for companies to meet tax regulations and calculates companies’ total tax liability as a percentage of pre-tax profits. The report considers the time it takes for companies to comply to regulations, the cost of taxes (Ireland boasts a 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate) and the number of tax payments made.

Gizmos and gadgets in Galway
The medical technologies sector is a promising aspect of Ireland’s life sciences industry. Despite the recession, the med-tech sector grew 14 per cent between 2008 and 2010. Ireland is the second largest exporter of med-tech products in Europe, after Germany. Enterprise Ireland wants the country to be recognized as a place for the research and development of medical products, not just manufacturing.

The Med in Ireland conference showcased the growth and innovation in this area and promoted Ireland as a centre of excellence in the medical device and diagnostic technologies sector. Irish companies including Lincor Solutions, Shimmer Research and Radisens Diagnostics displayed their innovative products at the exhibition.

Lincor Solutions develops bedside computational products for hospitals. Lincor’s MEDIVista product is an iPad-like device, which provides real-time access to a range of clinical and diagnostic information at the point-of-care. “It can be used for either multimedia services for the patient or can be used by staff as a clinical utility,” says Cooke. Lincor has a strong presence in Ontario hospitals, and the MEDIVista has been installed at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, the Royal Victoria hospital in Barrie, London Health Services and North Bay Hospital.

Shimmer Research focuses on wearable wireless sensing devices. The company’s lead product, the Shimmer, is a small wireless sensor platform that weighs only 22 grams and records and transmits physiological and kinematic data in real-time. “It’s pretty small and pretty powerful,” says Kieran Daly, Vice President of Development at Shimmer. The product can be used in a range of areas from health care to rehabilitation.

Radisens Diagnostics, located at the Rubicon Centre on the Cork Institute of Technology campus, develops point-of-care diagnostic and consumables that are used to diagnose and monitor the acute and chronic care of patients. CytoDisc, a battery operated, wireless and portable device, is Radisens’ latest product. Medical professionals can use it to monitor the blood of those with both chronic and acute diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease.

Future challenges
The global biotech industry will face many of the same challenges in the future. “A lot of the blockbuster drugs are coming off patent at the same time, so refilling pipelines is going to be a challenge,” says Hughes. There is also competition from some of the lower-cost manufacturing economies like China and India. “We’re certainly going to have to be able to compete much more on efficiencies and to support those companies in innovating so much of the higher value innovation-driven activities take place here.” He identifies this as a challenge for Ireland specifically since the country has a strong manufacturing base. “I think the opportunity for the country is to start to bring more and more of the companies’ innovation-led activities here and to be able to support that through a strong research community,” says Hughes.