Sector Overview BioPharmaChem Ireland is the new name for the Ibec association, chosen to better fit the changing face of the sector in Ireland, writes Matt Moran, Director, BioPharmaChem Ireland.
BioPharmaChem Ireland:
The Dawn of a New Era PharmaChemical Ireland is no more: the industry association revealed a brand new name, BioPharmaChem Ireland, on the occasion of the publication of phase four of its industry strategy, ‘Molecules Make a Difference’, at the The Drug, Chemical and Associated Technologies (DCAT) meeting in New York City in March 2016. BioPharmaChem Ireland (BPCI) is the name agreed by the membership to better fit the changing face of the sector in Ireland, where the level of investment in biotech or large molecule manufacture is increasingly rapidly at the moment, as I outlined in my piece last year. If anything, since I wrote that, the stream of investment has in fact increased, with Shire and GE Healthcare both announcing biotech investments adding to the others and bringing total capital invested to over €4 billion.
DCAT Meeting BPCI were joined by Barry Heavey of IDA Ireland and Dominic Carolan of NIBRT at the DCAT meeting. Both the IDA and NIBRT made compelling presentations at this event, which was titled ‘Inside Ireland’. In fact, Ireland is the only country so far to present at this prestigious event, which is attended by the majority of leaders from within the US based
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pharmaceutical and chemical sectors, making it the ideal occasion to profile the sector here in Ireland. A largely US-based audience were updated on the latest BPCI strategy and were able to interact with BPCI, IDA and NIBRT, resulting in them receiving a comprehensive overview on the state of play in Ireland. A lively and interesting panel discussion followed: we were very fortunate to be joined by Paul Duffy of Pfizer, David Keenan and Tyson Popp of Mallinkrodt and Morgan Norris of GE Healthcare, the whole event being very ably chaired by BPCI Chair, Seamus Fives of Pfizer. ‘Molecules Make a Difference’ clearly outlines the six primary priorities for the sector for the next phase of its development:
Competitiveness Ensuring that Ireland maintains a competitive environment that supports further growth of the sector, with a particular emphasis on innovation, operational excellence and that it retains a competitive rate of corporation tax.
Talent Ireland’s talent pool remains a key competitive advantage: it is important that industry, Government and the academic community Irish PharmaChem | Industry Buyers Guide 2017