The Irish medtech industry exports over €13bn to over 100 countries every year, positioning Ireland as the second-largest exporter of medtech products in Europe.
The export prowess of Irish healthcare and medtech companies was demonstrated recently when more than 20 home-grown businesses attended the Arab Health exhibition in Dubai where more than 200 meetings between the companies and buyer were organised by Enterprise Ireland.
This was a 40% increase in the number of Irish healthcare companies targeting the region,.
“Ireland has long been a leader in the medtech world”
From medtech to life sciences, Irish companies have been in export and scale-mode since the 1990s.
One contributing factor, but not the only factor, was the surge in entrepreneurship that followed the closure of Digital Equipment Corporation in Galway in the mid-1990s.
Steadily Irish medtech, life sciences and healthcare businesses have been steadily scaling and growing exports around the world.
“Ireland has long been a leader in the medtech world,” said Deirdre Glenn, director of Life Sciences at Enterprise Ireland, recently.
“Our success is down to a combination of track record and forward thinking and a deep pool of experience and highly trained talent. This is boosted by a fertile ecosystem that integrates industry, research and the clinical community to promote high-quality innovation.”
Here are a number of examples of Irish healthcare businesses with an export focus:
ACETECH
A global supplier of software and vehicle solutions for the emergency services market, Acetech designs innovative cloud-based fleet performance software, specialist modules for safety, eco-friendliness and asset protection, and intelligent control systems for healthcare providers and government bodies. These solutions integrate seamlessly with emergency service vehicles to help them perform better. ACETECH’s scalable integrated solution helps track all emergency vehicles and assets, coaches safe and productive driving, and reduces fuel consumption.
Aerogen
Aerogen is the world’s leading medical device company specialising in the design, manufacture and commercialisation of aerosol drug delivery systems. Its patented vibrating mesh technology turns liquid medication into a fine particle mist, gently and effectively delivering drugs to the lungs of critically ill patients. The company, with a wealth of international awards, has a strong international presence with offices in Ireland, UK, Germany, United States, Middle East, Asia and India.
CF Pharma Ireland Ltd
Cf Pharma is an ISO 13485 and HACCP accredited company based in Ireland that manufactures a range of novel specific Health Food Supplements, Medical Device Formulations and Advanced Topical Dermatological Solutions for both the Human and Animal Healthcare.
Empeal
A health risk management tool focused on prevention and management of chronic diseases, the Empeal platform gathers medical, nutrition, lifestyle, behaviour data, personal goals data from users through interactive questionnaires and integrated technologies like wearables for practitioners to visualise early trend. These data points are linked using unique algorithms to deliver highly personalised nutrition and lifestyle programmes. Empeal work with RCSI’s Centre for Positive Health and Psychology and are the technology partner of CPL’s Future of Work.
Fleming Medical Ltd
Fleming Medical pride themselves in having over 30 years’ experience in developing and supplying of medical devices, equipment, diagnostics, consumables and products to both the Irish and international healthcare and pharmacy industries. Fleming Medical are innovators and lead the way in chronic health conditions through the adaption of wearable technology to healthcare solutions. Fleming along with NUIG, RCSI & The Tyndall Institute are developing Dermatrax, the world’s first smart wound care dressing whereby a wound dressing will assess the wound viability via sensors that send the information to an app for a more accurate assessment thus reducing wound care costs and patient discomfort.
Gasgon Medical
Gasgon Medical is an award-winning start-up medical device company, based in Cork, Ireland, developing innovative fluid management products for the clinical market. Gasgon tackles the challenges of making IV infusions better for patients and clinicians. In December 2021 the company closed a seed round of €2m to manufacture and launch its premier device, AirVault. The company was recently awarded as overall winner, with a prize of €100,000, at Seedcorn, the largest business competition in Ireland.
HealthSectorTalent
HealthSectorTalent, also known as HST, is an award-winning healthcare talent consultancy founded on a culture that is passionate about transforming the way healthcare providers, state agencies and governments manage the acquisition of both clinical and non-healthcare talent. From creating and delivering talent attraction strategies to designing applicant flows and providing outsourced recruitment process administration, its customisable client-focused talent acquisition solutions support direct supply, hybrid RPO and end-to-end recruitment. By focusing on the entire talent acquisition ecosystem including strategy, processes, attraction and candidate management, HST deliver greater predictability of supply and a lower candidate acquisition cost through a partnership that goes beyond simply filling a vacancy.
HiberGene Diagnostics Ltd
HiberGene Diagnostics is a Dublin-based, private Irish company, that develops, manufactures, and markets molecular diagnostic tests for the direct detection of human infectious diseases, using the LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplication) technology. In 2020, HiberGene successfully completed the CE marking of a new fast molecular COVID-19 test. Positive results are returned within a few hours, enabling rapid diagnosis of the disease at the early and highly infectious stage of infection. With its expanding HG product line, HiberGene is committed to providing rapid and highly accurate testing solutions, which are cost effective and simple to use. HG tests address the unmet clinical need for a rapid, highly accurate and simple testing solution, making them ideal for use in a wide range of clinical, near patient and laboratory environments.
Kersia
Kersia is a global leader in biosecurity and food safety with value added products and solutions to prevent diseases or contamination in both animals and humans at every stage of the food supply chain. The company also offers solutions to the healthcare sector. Kersia operates in more than 120 countries with a workforce of over 1,500 people and a turnover of more than €300 million. With Kersia, farmers, food processing plants and retailers have the most trusted partner with the scientific and field experience to identify risks and deliver innovative solutions.
Medfind Solutions
Established in August 2015, MSL Healthcare are active across Irish hospitals and retail pharmacies, focusing on strong, value-added products which make a real difference to patients’ lives. With a combined experience in the Irish healthcare market of over 40 years, it aims to build a quality offering that empowers the physician to make an informed decision regarding their patient’s therapy. A further major strength lies in their ability to access key customers, payers, and stakeholders across all Irish hospitals. Recently, the company commenced the trading of MedFind UK Ltd, which can source and supply UK products for export markets as well as seeking partners for supply of unlicensed medicines to the UK and Irish markets. They also provide distribution facilities to business partners who wish to establish new operations in the UK and Ireland.
O’Flynn Medical
O’Flynn Medical is a family-owned company specialising in the supply and rental of medical equipment and service to the HSE, care facilities and private homes across Ireland. Since its establishment in 2002, it has gone from being a small maintenance company working in the healthcare sector, to a company who supply specialist innovative healthcare products across Europe. Scrubex, its scrub management system, has been saving money, tightening infection control procedures and improving the effectiveness of HSE hospital laundries since its introduction into the Irish Health Service in 2008. Now, it is also the preferred solution in Acute Hospitals in the UK and Germany. Its Stryker high end, pressure relieving products are proving to be reliable, clinically effective and cost effective across all areas of the Irish Health Service. The innovative O’Flynn Medical tablet crushing system is now being introducing into the UK market.
T-Pro
T-Pro is a global leader in clinical documentation improvement software. Their AI driven solutions enable workflows for efficient and accurate speech recognition, medical transcription, messaging, telehealth, document distribution and coding. T-Pro facilitates a patient centred solution by making it easy for doctors to capture the patient narrative, and by delivering information when it is needed most – at the point of care. T-Pro’s technology allows healthcare providers to voice enable their existing EPR, reduce transcription costs, outsource overflow tasks. Over 500 Client organisations and over 20,000 active users enjoy the benefits of T-Pro solutions today. Recently, T-Pro accelerated AI technology strategy for healthcare with the consolidation of Indian service providers under T-Pro Medical PVT.
