Michael Lohan is Head of Medical Technology & Healthcare Services at IDA Ireland. In this role, he is an ambassador spreading the word about Ireland's opportunities to medtech and biotech companies around the world. IDA Ireland is proud to be a platinum sponsor of The Med Tech Conference since 2007. Come visit IDA Ireland at booth #323. In the second part of this two-part blog, Lohan concludes his discussion about why American medtech companies have been choosing Ireland as their European base of operations. View part one of this blog here. 

An industry with inexhaustible demand like medtech, where people always need innovative healthcare solutions, must also focus on business issues to maximize success. In the US, companies weigh the challenges of improving their R&D, yet expanding production efficiently, find qualified staff, navigate regulations and better reach key markets?   Many US medtech companies are looking to Ireland to solve these challenges. Addressing these concerns is why 13 of the top 15 U.S. medtech companies have chosen facilities in Ireland, with more than 300 medtech companies currently doing business in the country, up from 50 in 1993.

 While the medtech industry is thriving, with sales increases of 10% or more in 2016 over the previous year, this bullish market outlook is tempered with the usual bearish concerns over competition, funding, effective R&D and other business issues. With Europe and the United States being the key markets that medtech firms focus on, many US firms are finding that having an Irish operation not only delivers many advantages but gives their products access to a lucrative market and plentiful opportunities to drive value.

Companies such as Boston Scientific, Abbott, Vistakon, Medtronic, Teleflex, Stryker, Cook Medical, Zimmer Biomet, DePuy Synthes, Hollister and BD are just some of the existing medtech firms with expanding Irish operations. Ireland now employs more than 32,000 people in medtech, which is the highest number in Europe as a percentage of a population. One quarter of the world's diabetics -- 30 million people -- rely on an injectable device manufactured in Ireland, while half of all ventilators used by acute hospitals worldwide are also made there. Meanwhile, three quarters of global orthopedic knee products were produced in Ireland.

There are several important reasons why American medtech companies have been choosing Ireland as their European base of operations.