Fenton’s Qualio joins coronavirus fight
CORKMAN Robert Fenton’s medical and pharmaceutical quality management software firm Qualio is offering free software and support to companies in the sector working to combat the coronavirus.
The former chemist said the firm he founded in 2012 also embraced a remote working model, rather than operating only from Dublin and
San Francisco, to make it easier to hire staff as it expands to about 70 people this year.
The firm’s offer of free software and support has been made to all companies engaged in product development, manufacturing, engineering or scientific research to slow down or combat the pandemic.
These might be firms working on therapeutics, diagnostics, vaccines or devices related to the virus, he said. “An ecosystem model where smaller, more nimble companies have contributed most of the world’s innovation in healthcare, rather than large monoliths. Our bet is that this is where the fight will be won.
“We’re already learning that many of our 100-plus customers are already engaged with global regulators and disease control centres like the CDC.”
Fenton raised growth capital last year to support the firm’s expansion, and has quadrupled his remote working team to 35 people based in the US, here – in Dublin, Sligo and Clonmel – and Germany, Poland, and Italy.
“We started Qualio to help teams building life-saving products to get to market quickly and scale successfully,” he said.
“We unite their quality team, tools and data so that they can become quality-driven. In doing this, we’re fortunate to work with lots of amazing companies.”