The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) life sciences sector has a hugely significant impact on the Irish economy with more than 78,686 people directly employed within the industry in facilities located right across Ireland, including more than 17,700 across the South-West region.
The South-West region comprises counties Cork and Kerry. The thriving, dynamic and innovative enterprise base in the region is supported by third level institutions of scale within the region, including UCC, MTU, the SFI research centres and the ETBs.
Ireland has evolved into a global hub for biopharmaceutical manufacture and in 2019 was ranked the fifth largest exporter of pharmaceuticals globally with exports of €80 billion. Three of the 10 best-selling biologics and vaccines products worldwide — Keytruda (Merck), Opdivo (BMS) and Enbrel (Pfizer) — are manufactured here.
Every name within the top 10 global BioPharma companies — Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, Eli Lilly and AbbVie — and 14 of the top 15 medical technologies companies have advanced operations in Ireland, supplying global markets.
There are 85 multinational BioPharma companies and more than 300 indigenous and multinational MedTech companies located in Ireland with 25 BioPharma and 15 Med Tech operations in the South West.
Ireland has been successful in attracting many largescale life sciences investments in recent decades, developing a strong track record of excellence in design, development and manufacture of both large and small molecule products pharmaceuticals for global supply.
Investment has also continued in innovative medical device manufacturing including the largest medtech additive manufacturing site in the world from Stryker in Carrigtwohill.
In 2019, Stryker announced it is investing over €200m in R&D across three of its Cork sites — additive manufacturing, surgical instruments innovation and neurovascular devices.
DePuy Synthes has also continued to expand its Innovation Centre in Ringaskiddy, announcing €36m investment in R&D and 30 new R&D roles in 2019.
In recent, years we have also won projects in commercial and medical services to service international markets. Ely Lilly’s services centre in Cork is an excellent example.
The sector is now a major anchor for the Irish economy. The South West region is an integral part of that, with companies including, for example, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, MSD, Astellas, Gilead Sciences, GE Healthcare, Abbvie, Janssen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Novartis, Biomarin, Rowa; Cara Partners, Hovione, Boston Scientific, Stryker, Merck Millipore, DePuy Synthes; Alcon, Listal and Tecomet; a list that reads like the who’s who of the global lifesciences community.
There are 211 IDA client companies in the South West region, employing 46,009 people, over 17,700 of whom are employed in the life sciences sector. Over the lifetime of IDA Ireland’s previous strategy, Winning – Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019 employment among IDA clients increased by 29%.
The South West’s life sciences industry played a central role in that growth.
Regional development remains a core pillar of IDA Ireland’s new strategy Driving Recovery & Sustainable Growth 2021–2024 alongside growth, transformation, sustainability and impact. 47% of IDA Ireland’s client base, 755 clients, are located in the regions, employing 144,689 people, which is 56% of overall FDI employment.
IDA Ireland’s focus on regions continues to pay off. It’s encouraging that investment continued at this level into the regions in 2020, despite the disruption caused by the global pandemic. Our focus on regions will continue in our new strategy — IDA Ireland aims to achieve 50% of the 800 target investments for regional locations.
Despite the global upheaval caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, foreign direct investment in Ireland proved to be resilient throughout 2020. Ireland’s life sciences sector has demonstrated leadership in the global fight against Covid-19 through collaboration on research to dynamic supply chain responses, directly supporting the demands placed on the global healthcare system and wider society.
Resilience, however, is not the same as immunity. As countries seek investment to drive their recoveries, it has further intensified what was already fierce competition to win FDI.
Companies that are investing into the South West are interested in talent, track record, infrastructure, access and connectivity, and the proximity to third-level educational institutes.
Companies are attracted to the consistently strong performances in operational excellence and regulatory track record — they are not taking decisions based on county boundaries. All local stakeholders have an important role to play in making the South West region as attractive as possible to all industries including life sciences.
What we have seen with the pandemic is an acceleration of certain global business models and the adoption of disruptive technologies across our client portfolio.
There is an acceleration in the adoption of artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, robotics, automation, and in response to that we are leading on the delivery of a national advanced manufacturing centre in Limerick.
This national centre of excellence will work with all Irish-based manufacturing companies in helping them onboard and scale industry 4.0 technologies to ensure they are at the forefront of technology adoption within high value manufacturing. This is a key piece of infrastructure that will give Ireland and, in turn, the South West a competitive advantage and strengthens our skills base across key sectors.
Further upgrade works and investment are planned for IDA property solutions right across Ireland to ensure a robust value proposition for clients. IDA has committed to build a new advanced building solution in Tralee, Kerry, in addition to continued investment in IDA business & technology parks and strategic lands in Ringaskiddy and Carrigtwohill.
In our new strategy, IDA Ireland has committed to continue to work with all stakeholders to enhance the strengths of the South West region and to win investment that builds upon its existing clusters and innovative enterprise base.
The Life Sciences industry is changing rapidly and the response of governments, industry and the research community here in Ireland plays a vital role in realising the opportunities and challenges that are on the horizon.
The life sciences cluster here in the South-West is the largest concentration of combined BioPharma and medical technologies employment in the country and is well placed to take full advantage of these exciting opportunities and IDA Ireland continues to support this.