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INDUSTRY FOCUS
she points out, where the large com- pany gets access to innovative research and expertise in the academic setting, while the academic researchers learn about industry challenges and require- ments. In some cases, they collaborate on
particular facilities, like the collabora- tion between Pfizer and UCC that runs a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometer at UCC’s Analytical and Biological ChemistryResearch Facility, which Maguire directs. Another case is the partnership be-
tween Procter & Gamble and the Ali- mentary Pharmabiotic Centre in UCC focused on probiotics as therapeutic agents. “As a result of that activityUCC is ranked second in theworld for probi- otic research, that is a huge achieve- ment,” she says, adding that similar partnerships are in place all around the country. “Almost all of the large companies
have collaborations with researchers, where both sides can get the benefits in terms of access to expertise, people, ideas and technologies.” The presence of multinational phar-
maceutical companies in Ireland has also helped to spawn an environment where home-grown life sciences enter- prises can thrive, and a case in point is Opsona Therapeutics. Based on immunology research from
Trinity College Dublin, Opsona was founded in 2004, and the goal is to bring new therapeutic molecules to the clinic that can control the immune system in a sophisticated way. The company would not have been
started were it not for the original re- search funded by SFI, according to co- founder Prof Luke O’Neill, director of the newly opened Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. Hiswork on key immune systemcon-
trols calledToll-like receptors formed a bedrock of the enterprise, and the hope is that by developingmolecules that can block these receptors, therapies could be developed for conditions where the immune systemhas become upset, such as rheumatoid arthritis or the rejection
‘If anything, life sciences is the one to putmoney on because it’s always going to be a growing market – people are getting older andwill need newproducts that are coming along’ PROFLUKEO’NEILL,DIRECTOR,TRINITYBIOMEDICALSCIENCESINSTITUTE
of organs following transplant. DuringOpsona’s growth, it has linked
in with heavy hitters including Wyeth/Pfizer, Genentech, and the No- vartis and Roche Venture Funds. Each partner has had a role in helping to val- idate or invest in the technology, says O’Neill, who is chief scientific officer at
Opsona. So far the company has raised €28m in venture capital funding and €6.3m fromthe EU FP7 programme. One of the company’s lead com-
pounds is now in clinical trials for pa- tients undergoing kidney transplants, and O’Neill sees a bright future for the life sciences industry in Ireland.
18 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW Issue 3 Autumn/Winter 2011 “There’s no doubt that this industry
is booming in Ireland, particularly as you move towards the biologic agents; that’s a huge growth market and Ire- land is making them,” he says. “If anything, life sciences is the one to
put money on because it’s always going to be a growingmarket – people are get- ting older and will need new products that are coming along. “And if there is, say, a great
Alzheimer’s medicine that gets devel- oped in the next fewyears and it is being made by a bigmultinational itwill prob- ably be a biologic, and Ireland will be well placed tomake that.”
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