PwC’s Gary Hanniffy talks about the importance of strengthening Ireland’s R&D sector and the need for fostering tech talent in pharma.
Ireland has a lot to celebrate in terms of its research and development sector. In the last few months alone, we’ve seen Irish scientists be at the forefront of many important projects, including boosting satellites with laser sensors, developing and testing advanced chips, and unlocking the mysteries of frogs’ flawless skin.
We’ve also seen some of our superstar researchers appointed to prestigious positions in Europe, including European Molecular Biology Organization and the European Marine Board.
And while there’s a lot to celebrate, it’s vital that the country does not get complacent. At the beginning of this year, a report suggested that the Irish Government surpassed an R&D investment milestone of €1bn in 2023. But industry experts suggest that this is still falling short of where it needs to be.
“If Ireland is to position itself as a world-class location for R&D operations, some stand-out measures are required to attract FDI investment and build a rich R&D ecosystem,” said PwC’s Gary Hanniffy. “[This includes] increased public funding in R&D activities and innovative corporate incentive measures.”
A chemist by training, Hanniffy has 20 years of global experience in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector, including industry experience from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
He now leads PwC Ireland’s pharmaceutical, life sciences and medtech operations work as a director in its advisory practice.
Hanniffy said the role of academia and industry collaboration is key to fostering and leveraging research capabilities.
“Ecosystem collaboration in Ireland is in its infancy. While informal collaboration in the manufacturing sector is commonplace, more formal, strongly invested industry initiatives targeting common operational challenges are only beginning to be initiated here,” he said.
“Such ecosystem innovation activity is important to strengthen Ireland Inc’s R&D brand on the global stage and attract investment in this area.”
Changes for industry workers
With so much experience under his belt, Hanniffy discusses how the industry had changed over the years.
“When I started working in 2004 in Cork, senior GSK executives spoke about a ‘wall of products’, representing strong confidence in a large pipeline of high-volume, small-molecule products. Down the road in Ringaskiddy, Pfizer had been singularly manufacturing the cholesterol blockbuster drug, Lipitor, for many years.”
In the years that followed, Hanniffy said he has seen a shift towards precision medicine, meaning lower volumes of highly targeted drugs aimed at specific diseases. He has also seen the introduction of large-molecule medicines, which require a different set of domain expertise to the traditional pharmaceutical capabilities.
“Covid has seen the rapid development of multiple platforms including mRNA, the impact of which we are told could go a long way to seeing cancer becoming a treatable disease in the next 10 years,” he said. “Top tier pharmaceutical companies have diversified their product portfolio strategies through the merger and acquisition activity.”
All of these changes and trends mean that workers within the field are coming into a different landscape, with different focuses and a need for different skills.
Working with digital solutions
In his own role, Hanniffy looks after the management consulting work PwC does with the manufacturing sector in Ireland, with a particular focus on the pharma, life sciences and medtech segments. His team also works with their colleagues in tax to assist companies with R&D tax credit and grant applications.
“I’ve been fortunate to play a role in multi-party industry innovation projects in the pharmaceutical sector in Asia and Europe over the past 10 years. These have involved addressing high-value, everyday operational challenges experienced by manufacturers in high-complexity operations,” he said.
An example of one such challenge that Hanniffy highlights is production changeovers, which is the transition required between production of two products using the same plant, which can take “very costly weeks or months to execute”.
“I was a co-developer of a digital twin platform that, among other things, addressed this challenge. The solution was co-developed in an agile process with multiple client companies, using their frontline staff insights at world-class facilities in Singapore and continental Europe.”
Hanniffy said that over the last 10 years, a lot of the work he and his team have done have been based around digital solutions that leverage the quickly evolving emerging technologies.
“However, most recently the focus is on the transformation required within client organisations to initiate, embrace and integrate innovation and innovative solutions into their operations,” he said.
“Very often this comes down to human considerations around culture, personal motivation, change management and the development of new skills.”
While Hanniffy was motivated to follow his intuition through chemistry, engineering, technology and consulting, the transitions between these areas were not without challenges. “I deliberately surrounded myself with a good network of people that I respect that I could call upon for advice to help chart a course. I’ve also found that with each challenge, I have learned more about myself and my strengths which has helped me navigate to a place where I most leverage these skills.”
The future workforce
With a significant portion of Ireland’s 50,000-strong pharma and life sciences workforce in manufacturing-related activities, Hanniffy said one of the biggest challenges for the sector is around the development of new skills and new ways of working.
“Ongoing technology investments continue to demand new skills and capabilities as they present the opportunity to operate plants in new ways. What we will see in this space over the coming years is that facilities will be increasingly managed using leading performance indicators,” he said.
“This will require core data analytics and artificial intelligence skills to be strengthened to drive these emerging predictive capabilities. Who would have thought a few years ago that factories would be hiring software engineers and coders?”
As graduates join the workforce, Hanniffy encouraged people to get as broad experience as possible and discover what most motivates on a personal level.
“It’s important to be aware of global megatrends, for example, digital and ESG, and explore how you can play a role in the next wave of development as it arrives at the door of local operations in Ireland.”
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