Dublin. Image: David Soanes/Shutterstock
Dublin. Image: David Soanes/Shutterstock

Life sciences jobs on the way as Synexa opens international HQ in Dublin

31 Jul 2017

Ireland playing home to a plethora of life sciences companies continues as Synexa sets up shop in the country’s capital.

With the promise of 30 highly skilled jobs to follow, Synexa Life Sciences has picked Dublin as the base for its new international HQ.

The biomarker research company already has labs in Berlin, London and Cape Town, with Dublin to benefit from the creation of a bioinformatics lab.

This will see specialised data analysts and machine learning systems interrogate the data generated by Synexa’s biomarker labs.

Founded by Irish man Paul O’Riordan and two scientists, Dr Justin Devine and Prof Patrick Bouic in Cape Town in 2003, the company’s global business has been growing for some time now.

“Ireland has a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s most open and business-friendly environments, making the decision to locate our international HQ here very straightforward,” said O’Riordan.

“The richness of insight available about a drug’s performance and the ability to identify biomarker-based ‘signatures’ of response and non-response among patients will mean that bioinformatics analysis will become an essential tool for improving the efficiency of new drug development over the next decade.”

Synexa provides analytical and advisory services to biopharma companies focused on the identification, development, analysis and interpretation of biomarkers in clinical trials and diagnostic validation programmes.

“The IDA has been extremely welcoming and professional, and Dublin’s rapidly growing ecosystem of high-tech companies, innovative research institutions and skilled young people makes it a very attractive place to build a business like ours,” said O’Riordan.

Big biopharma plans

Last week, officials in Roscommon revealed plans to tap into the burgeoning biopharma scene. With not far off 900 biopharma jobs created in Ireland already in 2017, it makes sense that various locales take aim.

With 100 construction jobs already pencilled in for the building of a facility called PriMe 6 near Athlone, the hopes are that several drug companies will come on board to share the clean room.

Denis Naughten, Communications Minister and Roscommon-Galway TD, said it is a unique prospect for any drug company looking to expand into the EU.

“Not just nationally, I think internationally, there has never been a design like this offered to anyone in Europe, and I think it’s a very attractive investment opportunity to bring employment into the Lakelands region, into Co Roscommon, from either the US, or the UK in particular,” he said.

Ireland is one of the world’s top biopharmaceutical manufacturing locations and it has seen more than €10bn of investment in the last 10 years from global biopharma giants.

Between January and May this year, 830 jobs were announced in this space throughout the country. More than one-third of those jobs came through MSD’s decision for a €280m, 330-job expansion spread between Cork and Carlow.

Gordon Hunt
By Gordon Hunt

Gordon Hunt joined Silicon Republic in October 2014 as a journalist. He spends most of his time avoiding conversations about music, appreciating even the least creative pun and rueing the day he panicked when meeting Paul McGrath. His favourite thing on the internet is the ‘Random Article’ link on Wikipedia.

Loading now, one moment please! Loading