Why Ireland needs to ride the Life Science wave
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Loading... - Sascha Esser
- 01 Feb 2023
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Broadly speaking, the life sciences industry comprises companies operating in, or supporting, the research, development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology-based medicines, and medical devices. Within those broad categories are a wide array of sub domains, ranging from biomedical technologies to nutraceuticals, and from food processing to informatics, but for the purposes of this article let’s just define the sector as pharma, biotech and medtech.
Pharma companies develop and distribute innovative and generic (off patent) medicines to cure, treat or prevent diseases and conditions. In 2019 BC (before Covid), the global pharmaceutical industry was worth €1.3 trillion led by companies such as Pfizer, Roche, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis.
Biotech firms use the natural processes of living organisms to manufacture products, food and medicinal products or solve challenges. The global biotech market size was estimated at $500 billion in 2019 and will likely double by 2025. The largest biotech companies include Novo Nordisk, Gilead Sciences, and Allergan.
Medtech companies develop and manufacture medical devices that can be used to diagnose, prevent, monitor, and treat various conditions. A medical device can be an instrument, machine, implant, apparatus, software or a combination of these. Complex unmet patient needs are driving the growth of the medtech industry. In the year 2019, the global medical devices industry was (like Biotech) worth nearly half a trillion euro in 2019, led by companies such as Medtronic, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Johnson & Johnson, and Abbott.
The leading tech giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook have also started making big strides in the medtech and general healthcare area, and they are rapidly leveraging their core strengths to develop ‘Software as a Medical Device’ products and services.
Given the household names above from an Irish perspective, as well as some of the eye watering monetary value at play in the industry, you’ll hopefully appreciate just how big a deal life science is going to be in Ireland’s economic future. Read More…
