ICON, a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical-device industries, is creating a new global innovation hub in Ireland, bringing 200 jobs for the country.
The new roles will range across areas such as IT, data analytics, clinical science and project management.
“As innovation plays an increasingly important role in improving the outcomes of clinical trials, we are excited to reinforce our commitment to that goal by locating our global innovation hub in Ireland, one of the leading R&D and innovation centres in the world,” Ciaran Murray, CEO of the company, said today.
The hub will look at the development of new technologies and clinical trial processes that will enable faster access to large volumes of clinical data and will enable clinical trial personnel to derive better insights from the data.
A growing workforce
“Since our foundation in Dublin in 1990, ICON has grown to become a global leader in clinical research, employing 11,000 highly-skilled professionals in 40 countries,” says Murray, whose company already employs 1,000 people in Ireland.
“We have successfully built relationships with all of the world’s top biopharma companies and have been at the forefront of innovation in the design and conduct of global clinical trials.”
Meanwhile Enterprise Ireland noted how investments like this add to Ireland’s expertise in a booming global industry.
“Congratulations is due to ICON on their tremendous success to date,” says Julie Sinnamon, CEO of an organisation happy to work with companies like ICON “to help them innovate and internationalise technologies to support the design, implementation, management and interpretation of clinical trials throughout the world”.
“I warmly welcome this exciting new investment which will expand Ireland’s capabilities in the field of data analytics and ‘Big Data’ management in the Life Sciences sector, and wish ICON continued success for the future.”
Life sciences image via Shutterstock
