Despite the tough odds, there were companies and projects that bucked the gloomy progress trend this year
1 AMARIN
Many thought drug development company Amarin would not even survive to 2010. A calamitous failure in phase III trials of its lead drug candidate – a treatment for Huntington’s disease – looked terminal. Most of the company’s efforts had been directed towards its development, money was tight and markets were in unforgiving mood.
However, against the odds, the Elan spin-off did come through and, in 2010, having stumbled through several management changes, it finally delivered.
Top line results from a new phase III trial of the same drug – this time as a therapy for patients with high triglycerides – surpassed even the company’s highest expectations. Triglycerides are, put simply, tummy fat – where food is stored until it is required as energy. At normal levels, they are not a problem but at elevated levels they are seen as increasing the risk of heart disease.
Amarin’s success was in showing the efficacy of its drug in lowering elevated triglyceride levels, especially at very high levels.
Even more significantly, they did so without increasing the level of something called low-density lipoprotein – otherwise known as “bad cholesterol”. The main player in the triglyceride market – a GlaxosmithKline drug Lovaza – actually raises this bad cholesterol.
All that, and the trials also showed the drug to be as safe as a placebo.
Based on the top-line figures, Amarin has brought forward by a full year an application to market the drug in the key US market.
The fact that Lovaza, which has sales of $1 billion despite the bad cholesterol side effect, loses patent protection in 2013 is just another boost – especially as Amarin expects the trials to throw up opportunities to extend patent protection for its drug to 2030.
All in all, the news was enough to trigger a 65 per cent rise in Amarin’s share price on the day. Since then, it has advanced by a further third to levels not seen since early 2007.
Dominic Coyle
2 STOKES BIO and FIRECOMMS
The sale of Stokes Bio and Firecomms, two indigenous Irish firms based on leading edge research and development, were hugely significant for differing reasons.
Stokes Bio was spun out of research being undertaken at the Stokes Institute at the University of Limerick in 2005. It specialises in microfluidics – analysing tiny droplets of fluids using automated machinery.
Despite being at the “pre-revenue” stage, ie its research was still commercially unproven, Life Technologies, a US bio-technology firm with a staff of 9,000, that operates in 160 countries, was willing to pay more than €33 million to acquire the business.
Firecomms, which enables cheap plastic fibre-optic cabling to be used for high-speed communications, was sold for an undisclosed sum. The significance in this case was the buyer – privately held Chinese group ZJF.
China’s rapid economic growth – which only paused during the global downturn of 2008/9 – makes it an essential trading partner. Latest CSO figures show that in the first nine months of 2010, exports to China at €1.6 billion were only marginally less than our imports of €1.7 billion.
If Ireland is to benefit though from China’s re-emergence as an economic power, deeper linkages, such as the acquisition of Irish technology as demonstrated by the Firecomms acquisition, will be required.
The sale of both companies also shows that the linkages between research centres and the commercial sector are starting to bear fruit. Firecomms was formed in 2001 and grew out of research being conducted at the Tyndall National Institute in 2001.
Stokes Bio and Firecomms are two different companies but the sale of both this year demonstrates that investors from both the east and the west are willing to open their chequebooks to invest in innovative Irish technology.
John Collins
3 EXPORTS
Amid the wreckage of the Irish economy, only one indicator has provider a consistent glimmer of hope through 2010. As growth stutters and the job queues lengthen, the Republic has continued to punch above its weight on exports.
Figures last week showed that in October, the trade surplus stood at €4.15 billion. A year earlier, the figures stood at €2.93 billion. A weaker euro and improved competitiveness – itself a byproduct of the deep and prolonged recession – have helped put a more favourable complexion on our external trade statistics.
Of course, the 1 per cent fall in imports over the first nine months of the year – much of it relating to substantially lower imports of computer and transport equipment, including aircraft (unsurprisingly given the slump in travel) has undoubtedly helped. However, the export side is improving.
Although seasonally adjusted exports slipped 2 per cent in October on the previous month, exports over the first nine months of 2010 are 3 per cent ahead of the same period last year. The outlook for the rest of the economy may still be obscured but most commentators are confident that any growth in 2011 will be driven by exports.
Writing earlier this month, Garret FitzGerald noted that while the foreign-owned element of our manufacturing base – particularly the pharmaceutical sector – has been growing consistently over the past couple of years,indigenous businesses started experienced a resurgence in output in the second quarter of 2010.
By September-October, this critical part of our economy was growing at a rate of 6 per cent, he noted. More importantly, the recovery was widely spread, with a majority of the 20- plus indigenous industries taking part in the recovery. As FitzGerald notes, employment growth, when it eventually arises, is likely to come from this sector of the economy, making the arrival of such green shoots even more encouraging.
Dominic Coyle
4 EQUINOME
The breeding of thoroughbred horses is one of the very few areas in which Ireland has long held a pre-eminent position.
Owners and their agents have long travelled from across the globe to the yearling sales at Goffs. For many of these racing enthusiasts, the decision to buy the offspring of highly successful thoroughbreds is often the biggest gamble they will take in the sport.
Until now, there has been no way for breeders and owners to determine in advance how likely a yearling is to replicate the success of its blood line. However, an Irish company established only last year is rapidly making a name for itself with a solution to this perennial conundrum.
Equinome was spun out of UCD on the back of research by Dr Emmeline Hill, who specialises in genomics. She identified a gene linked to muscle development. Its application is in assessing the ideal racing distance for an animal. Working with renowned racing trainer Jim Bolger, the granddaughter of fabled racehorse owner Charmaine Hill established Equinome to offer a gene testing service, the Equinome Speed Gene Test.
“The aim is to develop genetic tools to assist breeders and trainers in their decision-making,” Dr Hill said.
“That information can be used at various stages of the life-cycle, from informed selection and sales decisions for young stock to fine-tuning racing strategy or training, and optimising breeding potential.”
Having introduced the test at the Irish Thoroughbred Breeder’s Association Expo last January, Equinome has since secured clients in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Britain, France and Singapore.
Earlier this month, the product was introduced to leading bloodstock breeders in Australia, another significant market, with support from Enterprise Ireland.
The company is also continuing its research and hopes to launch further equine genetic tests in the near future.
Dominic Coyle
5 GRAND CANAL THEATRE
As boom legacies go, Dublin could do a lot, lot worse than the warm scarlet beauty of the Grand Canal Theatre, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and built by, um, Nama developer Joe O’Reilly.
So many ambitious Tiger-era projects were conceived with an entirely different set of demographics and disposable incomes in mind than would prove to exist by the time it came to launch day, leading to both crimson faces and accounts deep in the red.
But even if the 2,111-seat, €80 million theatre in the Docklands was one of those projects that just couldn’t make money in this new reality, its construction would still be justified.
The theatre has added to the gaiety of the nation via song-and-dance productions as Fame, Scrooge and Whistle Down the Wind, as well as music highlights like Belle and Sebastian and Joanna Newsom, plus opera, ballet and classical concerts if that was your particular fancy.
That’s the nature of the arts. The bottom line isn’t really the point.
Thankfully, however, the cash has been flowing in. In accounting documents relating to its pre-opening period, the directors said it had managed with a performance of Swan Lake by the Russian State Ballet in March.
“The response to the Grand Canal Theatre has been fantastic,” said Harry Crosbie, who owns the lease on the theatre and is one of the directors.
“The people of Ireland really seem to have taken it into their hearts.”
It probably helped that the building contains seven bars – enough alcohol, in other words, to take your mind off the snack prices.
Mike Adamson, the chief executive of Live Nation Ireland, which runs the theatre, said earlier this month that the majority of the performances at the theatre had been sold out, with 300,000 people attending the venue in its first eight months.
This time next year, Sister Act will be playing to the seasonal crowd and we should have the accounts to confirm that the Grand Canal Theatre’s opening year has not only not been a flop, but been a five-star performance.
Laura Slattery
6 THE ESB
The State-owned energy company can look back at 2010 with a glow of satisfaction. Just as the year was drawing to a close, it completed its €1.2 billion takeover of Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), which owns the North’s electricity transmission and distribution business.
The deal gives the ESB ownership of the national grids in the Republic and the North. These are two valuable and strategically important assets in their own right, but their value should be boosted in a few years as there are plans to effectively fuse them into one grid, as there is now an all-Ireland market for electricity.
The ESB and its rival, Viridian, which owned NIE, announced details of the deal in July. The purchase had to jump a number of regulatory hurdles, while some members of the Northern Ireland Executive raised concerns about the sale of the local electricity grid, which the Government assuaged. The regulators gave the thumbs up in the autumn and the deal went through as planned just days before Christmas.
When the agreement was announced back in July, it was thought that the Government would ultimately transfer ownership of the Republic’s national grid to another State agency, Eirgrid, which manages it, a move required by EU laws governing competition in energy markets. However, the prospect of this seems to have dimmed somewhat, as a report that went to Government in mid-December now suggests that splitting the ESB in this way is not necessary.
A decision is expected on this in January. If the Government were to accept the report’s conclusion, and that’s not certain, and decide that the ESB should remain intact, the company would end up retaining control of both grids, even though it was originally expected that it would only end up with one.
Barry O’Halloran
