Enterprise Ireland seeks to build biotech base

Ireland could become a significant player in the emerging biotechnology field, if enough care is put into nurturing the industry.

An initiative spearheaded by Enterprise Ireland, “Building Biotech Business,” is seeking to raise awareness of the industry’s potential.

The current scale of the Irish indigenous biotechnology industry is small. There are about 400 people employed in 21 small indigenous companies, Alongside these companies sits Ireland’s first indigenous multinational pharmaceutical company, Elan Corporation, and foreign-owned biotechnology companies, including Shering-Plough, Wyeth Medica, Genzyme and GenMedix.

The medium term objective of Ireland’s “Building Biotech Businesses” strategy is within five years to have increased the depth of the early-stage indigenous biotechnology industry to 60 companies employing 1,800, with a vision that this will grow to 130 companies by 2010 employing 5,000 people.

This is an industry — and an investing opportunity — that Bill Gates has touted as a future wave that will dwarf even the information technology wave of the 1980s and ’90s.

For further information, see www.enterprise-ireland.com.