Ireland’s biggest medtech players scoop awards at IMA event

8 Dec 2017

Image: ATK WORK/Shutterstock

Ireland’s leading medtech companies and figures were named among the winners of the IMA’s annual awards.

As part of the Irish Medtech Association’s (IMA) Medtech Rising conference, which has seen a number of Irish and international dignitaries discuss the island’s success in the sector, a number of award-winners were also revealed.

Among them was Bausch & Lomb, which was named Company of the Year for “great strategic vision with their expansion that doubled production levels while maintaining customer service and supporting innovation”, according to the IMA’s acting director, Eoghan Ó Faoláin.

Meanwhile, Medtronic’s vice-president of global operations, Peter Walsh, was named the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Medtech award.

The inaugural Best European Medtech Week Campaign award went to Tinderpoint, a specialist digital agency with offices in Ireland and the UK. The IMA congratulated the company for its part in “a major pan-European effort to help people better understand the value of medtech, and how it saves and improves lives”.

Cúram named as academic leader in medtech

Other winners on the night included Renew Health, which took home the Emerging Medtech Company award; Longboat Clinical, picking up the eHealth Innovation award; and Anecto, which was selected as the Medtech Partner/Supplier of the Year.

From a research perspective, the big winner on the night was the Cúram centre for research in medical devices, which won the award for Academic Contribution to Medtech in 2017.

Enterprise Ireland’s director of life sciences and food commercialisation, Deirdre Glenn, said: “Supporting innovative young companies with global ambition is a key focus of Enterprise Ireland and it’s great to see them succeed.

“Start-ups and SMEs make up 80pc of the Irish medtech sector and these are recognised in the Emerging Medtech Company award, which was won by Renew Health.

“This ambitious company has grown from four employees in 2014 to 50 today, and now has an international presence across Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.”

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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