The Minister for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen, yesterday departed on a five-day Enterprise Ireland Trade Mission to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota, one of the largest medtech clusters in the United States.
Despite the global recession, the Irish life sciences sector has continued to grow and has evolved into one of the leading global clusters with direct employment of 50,000 people and exports of more than €50 billion annually.
Eighteen Irish life sciences companies are participating on the mission which aims to highlight Ireland as a key hub for innovative life sciences solutions and to explore business and research opportunities in the Twin Cities area where approximately 700 medtech companies are based.
Of the 18 companies travelling, 13 are Sub-Supply (SS) companies and five are in the Finished Devices (FD) category. SS companies have a service that they can provide to medical device manufacturers while FD have a finished product to sell to medical device companies and healthcare providers.
Speaking before departing on the Trade Mission, Minister for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen said, "Thirteen of the world’s top 15 leading medtech multinationals now have operations in Ireland but the most impressive progression in our system has been the emergence and growth of our own vibrant indigenous industry. Along with growing exports, this has facilitated an increase in jobs with a strong regional dispersion."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
