Life Sciences Sector Ireland

In order to benefit both patients and profits, Irish Life Science companies need to learn how to embrace change and innovation. In the last few decades’ huge amounts of money have been invested into Ireland’s economy in this area, which has resulted in a booming sector, which employs over 50,000 employees in over 350 companies. This has generated €44 billion in 2008, accounting for 30% of Irish exports. But in these changing times how can Ireland compete and stay competitive with other countries?

According to the Irish Times, our answer lies in collaborating “to build up an innovative, homegrown RD base that fulfils its needs while expanding our national portfolio and, crucially, keeping jobs. A sizeable majority of the current turnover in the life sciences sector in Ireland is based on the activities of large multinationals, all of which focus primarily on manufacturing the core active drug or finished drug product”.

As Ireland is now a high-cost economy our success lies in SMEs collaborating with other stakeholders in this sector to develop this country as a source of research and development power. There are niches to be filled, which can be done by SMEs but a huge focus needs to be placed on innovation. Currently, Ireland is focusing largely on the ‘D’ area of R&D. Large multi national firms conduct a lot of the research but barely any early stage product development is actually conducted in Ireland.

There are 2 major threats to global pharma, which SMEs could actually turn into opportunities. The first of these is patent expiration, which some big name products, and companies will be losing their patents in the coming years. Large corporations are turning to innovative SMEs in order to fill the narrowing product development pipelines. Innovation is needed at both ends of the product life cycle is essential in order to receive dividends in the current economic climate. The second area where SMEs can profit is in the lack of compounds in the drug development process. The essential thing is for innovative SMEs to extend the life of the patent by changing and improving the products; for this large corporations would give a lot.

In this industry change is essential in order to not fall behind your competitors. For Ireland this means that collaboration between all stakeholders in the industry is essential. Everyone needs to be moving forward and adapting with change. Innovation is essential to generate and exploit opportunities in the future.

Source - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0409/1224267682620.html