How Galway’s MedTech hubs are churning out thousands of tiny products

On the eastern outskirts of Galway city, production lines roll around the clock.

Using state of the art tools, in clinically controlled environments, these hubs churn out thousands of tiny products every day.

Life-changing medical devices that are shipped all over the world, before being inserted into the arteries of millions of people, on every continent.

There’s a striking contrast between the minute metal stents that are made in Galway and the vast volume used globally.

They say that big trees grow from tiny acorns – and the same might apply to this region’s medical technology (medtech) output.

From small beginnings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, 80% of the world’s supply of stents are now produced here.

But that is just one product that emanates from the sector. Ventilators, drug delivery devices, contact lenses, paediatric treatments…the list goes on.

Many more innovations are being developed, tested, trialed and prototyped here, by countless companies that are flourishing in the medtech cluster that has expanded from the city, to take in the surrounding counties.

The scale of its economic importance can’t be understated.

Anchored by the multinationals Medtronic and Boston Scientific, the sector employs 15,000 people in Galway alone.

Indigenous companies like Aerogen export products to more than 80 countries, all the while developing and producing groundbreaking treatments.

The foundations laid in recent decades support several smaller firms that feed into the supply pipeline. They’ve made the city a place synonymous with standards of excellence and innovation, when it comes to the latest medical technologies.

The IDA says the success in Galway underscores a broader ecosystem in the west. There are 2,500 people employed by medtech companies like Baxter Heathcare, Meissner and Hollister in Co. Mayo. A further 550 in Co Roscommon at facilities run by Harmac and Nordson.

And there are continual efforts underway to build and develop the sector further.

Companies speak regularly of the “talent base” or “pool of highly skilled graduates” being supplied by the University of Galway and the Atlantic Technological University.

Over the years, the educational institutions have evolved their course offerings, enhanced their laboratory facilities and relentlessly focused on the opportunities that can be exploited, by having some of the world’s leading medical technology firms on their doorstep.

Dr Olivia McDermott from the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Galway has carried out extensive research into the origins, growth and future prospects of the sector.

“In many ways the cluster developed from the embers of digital [computers] because the IDA went and attracted multinationals to Galway in the aftermath of that firm’s withdrawal from the city in the early 1990s.

“There’s a virtuous ecosystem in the sense that the two main ‘parent’ multinationals, Boston and Medtronic employed people, some of whom left and set up their own indigenous medical device companies.

“Those either got bought back by some of the parent companies or they attracted more multinationals to Ireland to take them over, so that just increased the cluster.

“Then some of those entrepreneurs went on and bought other companies or they’ve been involved with other medtech start-ups.

“Suppliers were also set up around the multinationals, the pipeline of educated graduates grew, the focus shifted to R&D, so along with manufacturing, we were able to combine all of those in Galway, meaning we can have a say in designing innovative devices, meeting patient needs and doing things that put the city at the forefront now of new product development.”

The founder and CEO of Aerogen, John Power, started his company in a room over a butchers in Maigh Cuilinn in 1998. Today it employs 500 people in 28 countries, after designing all kinds of devices designed to simplify and support the delivery of medication to patients.

A wall in the reception area of the company’s headquarters in the Dangan area of Galway, is filled with patents from the United States, verifying countless innovations, developed here over the last quarter century.

John Power tells how his entrepreneurial spirit drove his ambition to develop products that would revolutionise certain treatments.

After a stint in the field of aerospace, “I went and got a job in a medtech company, designing life support ventilators and figured that the opportunities would come along and I’d set up a business in that space.

“Nobody had really figured out how you deliver drugs to a patient, who is ventilated. If you’re intubated, you can’t have a spoonful of medicine or a tablet, so really the only way to get the drugs into those people is intravenously or intramuscularly.

“A lot of the people in ICU, on ventilators, are there due to lung complications and infections, so this is all about targeted drug delivery.

“I set about solving the problem of how you could take liquid drugs, turn them into aerosols and transport that into the lung, as the ventilator was giving gas to the patient.”

That idea bore fruit.

“Aerogen right from the very start was a technology company, with our own product concepts, our own technologies – electronics, software, mechanical engineering all thrown together with pharmaceutics to boot. So the company evolved and I grew the business over the next number of years.

“Today we’re the largest Irish indigenous medtech company.

“We export to 80 countries around the world. This year we produced our twenty millionth product for use in intensive care units, so we’ve made a major contribution to healthcare infrastructure globally.”

But Power says there’s still plenty of room for the company to grow further, as it branches deeper into the pharmaceutical sector, developing a drug which he believes will have a “profound impact” when it comes to treating premature infants and neo-natal survival, as it could reduce the amount of intubation required by “up to forty percent.”

“By 2026 Aerogen will still be a drug delivery medical device company, but we’ll also be an early-stage biopharma company.”

That jump by the Galway firm signposts what industry experts say is where the next stage of this story will unfold.

The Irish Medtech Association, part of IBEC, is overseen by Dr Eoghan Ó Faoláin. He says the expansion from manufacturing, to research and development, product innovation and development, demonstrates the pathway for future growth.

“We now have 48,000 employed in the medtech sector in Ireland, with exports in excess of €13 billion per annum. For a small country on the edge of Europe, we’ve done very well in terms of growing the base and moving up the value chain”.

Ó Faoláin argues that the foresight that brought about this situation now needs to be called upon, to future proof Ireland’s position. He says, in this regard, a convergence of sectors will drive the next generation of products.

“Now we have the advent of smart technology, connected devices and the prospect of real time and remote monitoring of patients. This shift towards connected health is a huge change in the industry and a huge opportunity for Ireland.”

But those prospective gains are not guaranteed. Ó Faoláin says a national strategy is needed to ensure existing industries can work closely together to develop ‘combination products’.

He says a synergy between the pharma, medtech and technology sectors would position Ireland as a location where next generation technologies could be developed, finessed and produced.

“We can learn from other jurisdictions that have developed clusters, to encourage collaborations, and have a life sciences and health strategy, to ensure the gains of the last 30 years can be built upon.

“There’s plenty going on at present but there’s an opportunity to step up our efforts by making sure the talent pipeline meets emergent skills. We’re increasingly going to have regulation around clinical data, we need people here trained and ready to adapt to those competencies.”

That means the education system needs to continue producing sufficient numbers of high-skilled graduates and that the country must also attract workers from abroad.

Ó Faoláin feels a Government driven national strategy would underpin existing progress and map out the skills, infrastructure and investment needed, for the next stage of Ireland’s medtech and more journey.

“People will always be in need of emerging technologies and medical solutions. We’re well placed to be at the forefront of the next chapter, once the supports are in place to drive this” he says.

Back at the University of Galway, Dr McDermott is also positive but cautions that a downward trend in the pricing of medical devices globally will have consequences.

She adds that “recent moves by the EU to introduce stringent medical device regulations for manufacturers could also alter the potential for new innovations to be first trialled in Europe, shifting the focus to other areas. That’s something that may impact on the supply line of new devices.

“But, it’s not going to collapse in the morning, we’ve built a very strong, very resilient cluster in Galway, with an English speaking population, at a gateway to Europe and have a highly educated workforce, so I think the cluster will only go from strength to strength.”

John Power agrees that the future holds further promise.

“It costs a €100 million minimum to bring a pharma product to market, so it’s a lot more expensive than medtech” he says.

“But I think that’s where we will need to go. We will need to keep moving up the ladder all the time in terms of what value we create in the country and what we can do in terms of our exports globally.”

The big tree has taken root. Now, it has now sprouted a forest. RTÉ