Enterprise Ireland and Texas Medical Center (TMC) have announced a new strategic partnership.
The TMC|Ireland BioBridge partnership will provide gateway opportunities for Irish companies, entrepreneurs, researchers, clinicians, and industry partners to collaborate with Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical city, to solve global health challenges.
Focused on advancing health and life science through commercialisation, innovation and research, the partnership is designed to bolster collaboration and improvement of patient health and care experience through innovative medical devices, digital health solutions, and therapeutics.
Research collaboration will focus on identifying opportunities for clinical research and clinical trial activities.
“The breakthrough technology and entrepreneurship that is coming out of Ireland is truly impressive, and the TMC team is thrilled to be in Ireland today to solidify our partnership,” said William McKeon, president and CEO of Texas Medical Center. “The past two years has shown the importance of collaboration at a global scale, and we are eager to start our work with Enterprise Ireland’s team to further global innovation and research.”
Welcoming today’s announcement, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar said: “Years of investment by Government and industry has created a concentrated community of innovation and expertise within Ireland that is breaking new ground and making a major contribution to international healthcare. Today’s announcement by Texas Medical Center and Enterprise Ireland is a very positive development and will drive further integration and opportunities to bring Irish healthcare innovation to the world.”
“I visited the Texas Medical Centre during my St Patrick’s Day visit to Texas earlier this year. I am delighted that TMC have been able to return the visit to enter into this important BioBridge partnership with Enterprise Ireland. Ireland is a European leader in medical devices. This partnership will provide Irish companies and entrepreneurs with increased market access to develop the next lifesaving healthcare company,” said Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
Over the past few months, TMC has worked with LifeLet Medical, a start-up company from Galway, Ireland, who is developing a novel biomimetic leaflet material for heart valve replacements.
Lifelet is part of TMC’s HealthTech Accelerator programme and is supported by Enterprise Ireland.
High Potential Start-Ups, InVera Medical and Aurigen Medical are also past participants of the Health Tech Accelerator Programme.
LifeLet Medical and Aurigen Medical have also been awarded collaborative funding under the Government's Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund administered by Enterprise Ireland.
TMC’s BioBridge programme facilitates "the exchange of ideas and research at a global scale to better the patient experience and provide groundbreaking solutions for complex health care problems".
The TMC|Ireland BioBridge partnership is TMC’s fourth international partnership.
Other global partners include Australia, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Over 80 per cent of TMC Innovation’s current HealthTech Accelerator cohort is composed of international companies, showing the reach of TMC’s international partnerships.
The TMC|Ireland BioBridge partnership was formalised at a ceremony held on May 9th, 2022 in Dublin.
