Enterprise Ireland teams up with Mayo Clinic to develop new medical technologies

Back row (l-r): Dr Jim Browne, NUI Galway President; An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny; Dr Mark Bruzzi, Director of BioInnovate Ireland and Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering, NUI Galway. Front row (l-r): Jeff Bolton, Vice-President, Mayo Clinic; and Dr Keith O'Neill, Director of Life Sciences Commercialisation, Enterprise Ireland.

Early stage medical treatments and devices - invented at the Mayo Clinic in the US - are to be developed into ready for market products by Irish academic institutions under a new agreement to be signed this morning.

For the past 150 years, the non-profit Mayo Clinic in the US has been a world leader in medical treatment and research.  But according to the clinic, developing a good idea from early stage basic research into a ready for market product is expensive and difficult to fund in the US.

The Taoiseach will today (10th April) witness the signing of an agreement that will see the Mayo Clinic partner with Enterprise Ireland, which has an established commercialisation fund and expertise in the area.

The clinic will hand over 20 promising ideas for new medical technologies and Enterprise Ireland will provide €12m in funding and experts in universities and academic institutions here to develop them for market.

The first project - a device for treating acute pancreatitis - is already being developed at NUI Galway.

Acute pancreatitis is an increasingly prevalent condition worldwide with substantial hospitalisation costs, but with no widely accepted therapies or practises for proactive management of the disease. Associated healthcare costs are estimated at €3 billion in the US alone.

Professor Vijay Singh at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota developed the device and conducted the initial laboratory testing NUI Galway’s expertise in medical device development presented an opportunity to clinically develop and validate the proposed therapy towards a human clinical study.

NUI Galway President Dr Jim Browne said “This exciting agreement builds on the many links between NUI Galway and the Mayo Clinic. It’s a significant endorsement of NUI Galway’s acknowledged strength as a centre for medical device development and commercialisation. I would hope that the support of Enterprise Ireland, ACT Capital and Aisling Venture Capital for this agreement will pave the way for further investment in biomedicine, a priority for NUI Galway, in Galway, one of five global medtech hubs.”

Read more at NUI Galway here