Investment and upskilling in a thriving medtech sector has resulted in the creation of several innovative Irish companies making waves on the international stage
Ireland’s medtech sector has quietly become one of the country’s biggest success stories – and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. What started as a strong manufacturing base has evolved into a global hub for innovation, with Ireland now home to many of the world’s leading medical technology companies.
At its core, medtech in Ireland is about designing and producing devices and solutions that improve patient care – from surgical equipment and implants to diagnostics and digital health tools. The sector employs around 50,000 people and exports billions each year, making it a major contributor to the Irish economy. But beyond the numbers, it’s the ecosystem that really stands out.
One of Ireland’s biggest advantages is its ability to attract multinational investment while also supporting homegrown companies. Global players have set up significant operations here, drawn by a skilled workforce, strong links to universities and a business-friendly environment.
At the same time, Irish start-ups are benefiting from the increased Government support, skillset and investment and carving out space in the global arena.
Places like Galway – home to SymPhysis – have become known as medtech clusters, where companies, researchers and hospitals work closely together. This collaboration helps ideas move quickly from concept to market – something that’s critical in a fast-changing industry.
Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. Rising costs, talent shortages in specialised areas and increasing regulatory demands are putting pressure on companies. There’s also a growing need to keep up with digital transformation, as healthcare becomes more data-driven and technology-focused.
Even with these challenges, the outlook is strong. An ageing global population and increasing demand for healthcare solutions mean medtech will only become more important. For Ireland, the opportunity lies in continuing to invest in innovation and skills – ensuring it stays not just competitive, but ahead of the curve.
SymPhysis
It was while taking part in the BioInnovate Programme that Dr Michelle Tierney and Tim Jones, founders of SymPhysis Medical, recognised an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of late-stage cancer patients. BioInnovate is a full-time programme which brings together multidisciplinary teams with a view on collaboration to improve patient outcomes, and in this instance led to the development of the company’s releaze™ Drainage System.
As part of BioInnovate, Tierney and Jones spent time observing patient care within hospitals, speaking to clinicians and patients alike, and coming to recognise a need within malignant fluid effusions, often described as “fluid in the chest”, among palliative care patients. The existing care for this condition, they explain, involved both in and outpatient treatment with specialised equipment that couldn’t be managed independently – putting additional strain on patients and their families. The company’s releaze™ Drainage System makes a real impact on patient care through its focus on self-management – empowering patients to take control of their own care.
“The current devices work well,” says Tierney, “they’re satisfactory in that they help patients with fluid in their chest. Patients have a device placed in the hospital and then go home, which is the key thing for patients who have terminal diagnosis – they want to spend as much time at home.
“The main issue we saw was what their experience was like once at home – it was over reliance on other people, whether it’s a carer or a family member.” Going on to explain that existing devices require more than one pair of hands to be effective, Tierney says that while talking to patients, herself and Jones learned that care decisions were being made based on the amount of support a patient had at home. “It was actually impacting their ability to choose – to choose what treatment they wanted,” she says.
Through extensive consultation with patients, their families and clinicians on both the practicalities and limitations of the current device, the opportunity became clear.
“We saw how the devices already on the market positively impacted a patient’s ability to go home,” echoes Jones. “What was missing was the independence piece, and we realised that if we can increase the potential length of independence for these patients, then we’ll have a transformative effect on their care at home. We knew that if we could transform it even further, it’s something that the patients and clinicians really would warm to and something that they would be open to adopt.”
And warm to it they have. SymPhysis Medical was recently awarded a $1.25 million non-dilutive grant from the Rhode Island Life Science Hub (RILSH) to establish its first U.S. headquarters in Rhode Island and advance its pathway toward U.S. regulatory clearance.
Speaking about plans for the future and how the device might be used to treat other conditions, both Tierney and Jones are clear that after a seven-year journey to get to this stage – they want to launch releaze™ Drainage System for malignant fluid effusions first. The US launch is first, followed by European markets such as the UK or Germany.
Jones is clear on their plans, saying: “It’s laser focus on delivering the first product because all of the plans that we have for next generation adjacencies, or any of the pipelines that we talk about are not really that important unless we prove that the device will work initially in patients.”
“Going into the US first actually speeds up getting to the European market because it allows us to get clinical data, once it’s cleared for use in the US we then use that clinical data in order to submit for the MDR CE mark so That’s a key aspect, but as we are developing, we are looking at all of those adjacencies as a lower priority because we can’t really put a lot of resources on them. But they ultimately will build value in the business, enable us to look at treating a wider group of patients
“And all of those things need due consideration, but at the right time. So in four to five years’ time, if all goes well, we really hope to be a company that is continuing to talk to clinicians, continuing to see where the opportunities are and continuing to develop a major portfolio within the pleural disease space.”
TymPulse Medical
In a healthcare landscape increasingly shaped by convenience, speed and patient comfort, TymPulse Medical is tapping into a powerful shift: the move away from invasive surgery and towards smarter, more efficient treatments.
Spun out of the Royal College of Surgeons and founded by Dr. John Gleeson & Prof. Fergal O’Brien, Tympulse’s mission is to be a global leader in disruptive regenerative surgical technologies. The medtech startup is focused on transforming how eardrum injuries are treated – offering a solution that could one day make traditional surgery feel like a thing of the past.
“There has been a huge market shift across the entire surgical devices space over the last decade towards minimally invasive solutions,” explains Gleeson. “Rising healthcare costs and pressure on hospital beds and infrastructure has forced payers to migrate less complex surgical procedures into an outpatient or homecare setting. With slightly more complex procedures, like ear drum repair, the major barrier to a minimally invasive approach has been a lack of innovation in the surgical tools. This is the opportunity that we identified as a clear gap in the market and where our innovation fits.”
Gleeson explains that the shift towards treatments that are quicker, gentler and more accessible is something many of us are already seeing across healthcare with “huge advances in minimally invasive sinus care” already taking place. But eardrum repair has remained relatively unchanged, until now.
At the centre of TymPulse’s approach is its breakthrough product -TympanoColl – is a minimally invasive eardrum repair system for the repair of burst ear drums and a first-of-its kind device that can safely deliver a regenerative implant through the ear-canal to repair the eardrum and restore hearing. Driven by biotech advances, device engineering, and clinical need, Gleeson explains how innovative the product is and how large its patient profile is.
“Our first product iteration is ideally suited to small localised lesions that are commonly seen in young children who have their ear tubes removed (but still have a hole in the ear drum), and adults with ear infections that lead to chronic non-healing wounds. These groups make up 70% of our target market. The second version of the product will tackle the remaining 30% of patients that have a total ‘blow out’ of the entire eardrum. These need more specialist care but can be carried out using an evolution of our first product.
“Best practice currently uses patients’ own donor tissue harvested from connective tissue outside of the ear, or animal derived membranes derived from skin. Our regenerative bioimplant is biomimetic in nature and the Tissue Engineering Research Group led by Prof. Fergal O’Brien in RCSI has spent a number of years optimising this to allow restoration of normal, healthy natural ear drum tissue.
“Navigating the small, confined space of the ear canal and middle ear outside of an operating room requires more advanced surgical devices that have traditionally been the preserve of interventional heart repair, such as advanced catheter systems. By utilising those advanced engineering concepts, on a less invasive procedure, we get the benefits of catheter-based innovations but with dramatic improvements in speed and outcomes. Innovation in manufacturing also makes these affordable so that ENT surgeons can bring them into their practice to save time and money, while crucially improving the experience and results for the patient. Bringing healthcare costs down is a priority for all stakeholders and the significant savings we can make in procedure time) adds up to huge benefits for patients and caregivers.”
Of course, bringing a new medical technology to life comes with its own set of challenges – particularly in such a highly regulated space. And Tympulse Medical’s experience has been no different.
“The biggest challenge has been building the value proposition to become truly investable,” Gleeson says. “Having the idea and prototype is only one aspect. The route to market is a major risk factor with regulated medical devices so there is an enormous amount of time needed to build a community of clinical ‘champions’, experienced advisors with domain expertise to help navigate the early stages with hugely limited resources, all while having very limited resources. Tympulse has a lot of people to thank, not only funders such as Enterprise Ireland, who have been immensely supportive but also the Irish Medtech Association, as well as business supports such as Furthr and the broader Irish Medtech community. We are now reaping the benefit of at least three decades of life sciences and medical device investment in Ireland and this expertise is now filtering down across all aspects of the startup ecosystem.”
Looking ahead, Tympulse Medical’s ambition stretches far beyond a single treatment and echoes advances being seen across the country.
“We plan to be a platform medtech business as we will offer a number of product versions for in-patient and out-patient settings, with advanced visualisation and diagnostics systems built into the technology.
“If you look at the ecosystem within third level universities across the country, the huge amount of innovative startups which have both been acquired by larger strategics or have gone on to procure huge investments there can be no doubt that life sciences innovation in Ireland is making a significant impact on a global scale.”
