Investors eye €8bn medtech sector opportunities

Investors with more than €6 billion in funds are eyeing opportunities in the Irish medical technology industry, whose exports are worth €8 billion a year.

Venture capital funds such as Omnex Capital, Abingworth, Sofinnova and Irish-based Seroba Kernel are planning to hold their industry's annual conference, IN3 Medical Devices 360, in Dublin on April 8th.

Opportunities
The organisations taking part are responsible for managing more than €6 billion in total and many of them will be looking for opportunities to invest some of their cash.

According to Peter Sandys, managing partner of Seroba Kernel, regulatory developments in the US are helping to boost the Republic's already prominent position in the global medical technology industry.

"Ireland's medical sector had already become one of the leading clusters for medical device products globally, the change in the US healthcare and regulatory regime has made Ireland even more attractive,'' he explained. Seroba is responsible for managing more than €95 million.

Activity level
Bruno Montanari, director of life sciences at French-based Omnes Capital, which manages more than €400 million, said that the level of activity in the Irish industry and the number of start-ups made attending the Dublin conference vital.

More than 200 people, including representatives of Irish and overseas start-ups, multinationals and venture capitalists will attend the conference in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel.