Shift to Large Molecules
There wasn’t the depth of biopharma knowledge in Ireland at that time and they found they had to look overseas for recruitment and training, O’Driscoll added.
“There was quite a degree of foresight back in 2003/4 as the drug pipeline now shows that by 2016 seven out of the top ten selling drugs will be biologics. And that’s being reflected then in the nature of the foreign direct investment and the growth of the industry here in Ireland.
“Small molecules still have a very important role to play but most of the new investment would be in the biologics sphere.”