Educating our community about what's happening in the industry is one of our core focuses here at Next Generation. That's why we decided to launch a monthly Life Sciences news roundup to help you keep up to date on the biggest stories in Ireland's Life Sciences sector.
From pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to medical devices, we will be shining a light on five stories from the past month to keep you informed of key market trends and perspectives. If you have news that you'd like us to include in next month's edition then get in touch - we'd love to hear from you!
Ready to get started with this month's edition?
Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy our two-minute roundup of what has been happening in the Life Sciences sector over the past month. Happy watching and we'll see you again next month!
Today we’re exploring five of the biggest stories to emerge from Ireland’s Life Sciences sector in the last few weeks.
Ireland is a global leader in Life Sciences, and the stories we’ll look at today explain why.
1) 200 jobs protected at Takeda biologics plant in Dunboyne
First up, a good news story about job sustainability. In a year that’s delivered a lot of serious news about job losses, it’s a welcome change to hear of MSD’s purchase of Takeda biologics plant in Dunboyne. In total, 200 workers are employed at this plant and all of their jobs will be saved.
(Source: Irish Times)
2) 400 specialist Life Sciences jobs to be created in Limerick
Next, we head to Limerick and a job creation story. As efforts increase across the globe to find the vaccine that will help us end the pandemic, US pharma giant, Regeneron, is developing an antibody that is showing promise in the fight against Covid. Part of this effort involves recruiting for 400 high end specialist roles to be based at Regeneron’s site in Limerick.
(Source: Irish Times)
3) Irish biotech company, Inflazome, bought for €380 million by Roche
Our third story is all about a major payout for one of Ireland’s young biotech companies. Founded in 2016, Inflazome has just been bought by Swiss drug giant Roche… for a whopping €380 million! Inflazome creates treatments for inflammatory diseases, many of them debilitating, such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Inflazome chairman Dr Manus Rogan, co-founders Dr Matt Cooper and Prof Luke O’Neill, and Dr Jeremy Skillington, vice-president, business development, photographed in 2016. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw (Source: Irish Times)
4) Ireland and India trade is valued at €1.116 billion - and set to increase
For our fourth story for this month’s roundup we head further afield to India. Trade between India and Ireland is already valued at €1.116 billion - and this figure is only set to grow as Life Sciences companies focus on their European plans in a post-Brexit era. The warm relationship between India and Ireland goes both ways. Currently, there are more than 110 Irish companies based in India, many of them from the Life Sciences sector, and 70 Indian companies based in Ireland.
Tanaz Buhariwalla, India Director at IDA Ireland (Source: Express Pharma)
5) Thermo Fisher Scientific in Cork celebrates a milestone birthday with a community grant
We close this month’s update on a warm-hearted story of social solidarity in Cork. One of Cork’s biggest employers, the Life sciences giant Thermo Fisher Scientific, is celebrating their 45 year history with a €45,000 community grant scheme. This money will be shared among local community groups. Nice one guys!
Carol-Anne Sheehy, Site Operational Excellence Lead at Thermo Fisher Scientific (Source: Darragh Kane, TheCork.ie)
That’s it for today everyone.
Catch us next month for all the latest industry news in Next Generation’s Life Sciences Report.
