The hub of the matter
There is a significant opportunity to build a world-class healthcare system in Ireland supported by the country’s world-class medical technology industry
The med-tech sector in Ireland is at the cusp of transformational change which will support a new era in healthcare, according to the vision outlined in Ibec group the Irish Medical Devices Association’s (IMDA) recently released manifesto.
As Donal Balfe, vice president, operations at Medtronic and IMDA chair explains, this vision involves the full healthcare system working together towards the common goal of providing patient care from diagnosis through to recovery.
“The world-class healthcare system we envisage will incorporate the HSE, industry, clinical trials, opinion leaders and developers in providing the full stream of healthcare and monitoring, rather than simply being focused on specific interventions at points in time,” he says.
Such interventions could include the placement of a stent if a person has suffered a heart attack, for example. The direction IMDA believes the industry is going is towards the total management of that person’s disease by integrating information and making it readily available – in other words electronic patient records can travel with the patient.
“There is an opportunity for Ireland to be recognised as an early adopter of such patient-centric products and solutions, which is a measure of international best practice in modern healthcare systems,” says Donal.
The pieces are in place for Ireland to fully embrace this opportunity. It is already recognised as one of the five global emerging hubs
THE MEDTECH INDUSTRY IN IRELAND IS DYNAMIC AND ADAPTABLE WITH A ‘CAN DO’ ATTITUDE
and a major contributor to global healthcare innovation, notes IMDA director Dr Sinead Keogh.
“Ireland’s med-tech sector employs 27,000 people in 400 companies. It is a location of choice with 18 of the world’s top 25 med-tech companies having made Ireland their home and the country is now one of the largest exporters of medical products in Europe with exports last year of €8.5bn.
“We continue to move up the value chain with more than 2,000 jobs and €652m in investment announced in the sector since 2014.”
With the global med-tech industry expected to grow by 5.5pc a year to reach €475bn in 2018 there is a huge opportunity for Ireland as a hub to address unmet needs, Sinead continues.
“People are living longer and there is a rise in the number of chronic diseases that need to be treated. Global competition is rife and there is a greater demand for health services with less money having been spent on healthcare in the past five to ten years.
“I really believe Ireland has the ability to make a significant contribution to this demand because it represents such a strong cluster in an environment where good relationships between industry, academia, clinicians and government agencies have been built up – I don’t think you get that anywhere else.” One of IMDA’s recommendations to achieve its vision is to foster a culture of innovation leadership within the Irish healthcare system and encourage closer engagement with industry to understand best practice in innovation.
It also recommends the introduction of a Small Business Innovation Research Fund to support the adoption of new and advanced technologies into the sector, noting that similar programmes have proven to be effective in the UK and US for medtech adoption in hospitals.
“While there are excellent examples of leadership within Ireland’s healthcare settings, hospitals and primary care centres need to do more to develop a culture that values, promotes and rewards innovation and R&D practices,” says Donal.
“We recognise the progress that has been made in recent years with the establishment of the Health Innovation Hub and recently announced Health Research Board Clinical Research Coordination Ireland [HRB CRCI], but more needs tobedone.”
In terms of third level research, a significant development happened recently with the establishment of the SFI Cúram Centre for Research in Medical Devices, says John O’Dea, CEO of Crospon and special advisor to the new centre.
“With around €35m committed over the next five to six years, Cúram represents the first major SFI funding initiative directed specifically at medical devices. It will be a focal point for interaction between industry and third level institutions aimed at developing medical device technologies which will provide affordable transformative solutions for chronic diseases.
“We need to encourage companies to take bigger strategic leaps which they previously couldn’t afford to do because of the risk involved. The SFI funding is conditional on a certain percentage of the investment coming from industry. This type of risk sharing will allow potentially much bigger strategic jumps to take place.”
John is also chairman of the external advisory board of BioInnovate Ireland, a programme based on BioDesign in Stanford University in the US, which he says forms a different part of the puzzle in the research and innovation space.
“While Cúram is focused on research leading to new technologies, BioInnovate Ireland’s objective is to lead to the spin-out of fundable companies. As distinct from technology development, it involves experienced people taking time out to assess whether they want to create a start-up and becoming deeply involved in clinical settings identify true needs.
“We need to see more instances of research leading to start-up companies in Ireland.”
A buoyant start-up scene
While this is true, the start-up scene in Ireland’s med-tech sector generally is reasonably buoyant, according to Donal, noting that half the companies in the sector are indigenous and many of these are SMEs.
“What has worked very well here is that a lot of major companies came into Ireland and hired skilled people who went on to set up their own businesses. There is now a good cluster of companies feeding off each other and people are moving within the ecosystem to set up on their own.”
The IMDA manifesto recommends reforming Capital Gains Tax to differentiate and reward mediumhigh risk investments and the introduction of an equivalent to the UK’s Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme to remove barriers to trade for start-ups and help get more firsttime investors into the market.
In 2014, IMDA developed a pilot mentoring programme with Enterprise Ireland involving four high potential med-tech start-ups being mentored by experienced professionals over a six-month period, which Sinead says had a major impact on the companies involved.
“The results are positive - one company saved nearly a year in getting product approval. We will soon launch the second phase of the programme having identified the next group of start-ups and mentors to be paired together.
“The med-tech industry in Ireland is dynamic and adaptable with a ‘can do’ attitude. I believe this has been a major component to its success in recent years.”