news 29 June 2026

From Ambition to Action: McCann FitzGerald LLP and Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association host forum on the development of Ireland’s National Life Sciences Strategy

In keeping with the theme, "From Ambition to Action", speakers and panellists shared insights on key priorities and challenges to be addressed in the development of a national life sciences strategy, as the Government moves from the stakeholder engagement and consultation phase to drafting and implementation.

Ireland's Life Sciences Sector: A Major Economic Asset Facing Real Challenges

Speakers highlighted the strength and strategic importance of Ireland's life sciences sector, pointing to the number of people directly employed, the scale of pharmaceutical exports, and the sector’s critical role in improving patient outcomes and care.

Attendees also heard about significant challenges facing the sector, including heightened global trade uncertainty and structural and regulatory issues affecting medicine approval pathways and the commercialisation of life sciences research in Europe and Ireland.

Key Policy Themes

The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment’s (DETE) approach to the development of the strategy has been underpinned by extensive stakeholder engagement, including a public consultation process which closed in December 2025, as well as internal and external economic analysis and international comparative analysis.

A number of key themes arose from this engagement and analysis, which may inform the Government’s development of the strategy:

Financing and Investment, such as closing the scale-up gap through venture capital and seed investment

Research and Innovation, including the data imperative and the acceleration of clinical trials

Talent and Skills Pipeline, with a focus on skills for the future and supporting collaboration between academia, industry and the health system

Regulatory Excellence, emphasising simplification in the regulatory system balanced with ensuring patient safety and improving Ireland's regulatory processes

Access to Innovative Therapies, Products and Services, including addressing reimbursement challenges

Health System & Patient Benefit, ensuring the system ultimately benefits patients with research excellence quickly translated into real world care

Key Challenges

A panel of government, industry and legal experts offered perspectives on these themes.

The panel also offered insights on what steps the national strategy should prioritise in order to maintain the sector’s competitiveness.  This included a discussion on the need to ensure that the national life sciences strategy is closely aligned with the key pillars of the European Commission’s Strategy for Life Sciences, and the importance of addressing potential bottlenecks by accelerating the roll-out of Individual Health Identifiers as well as Ireland’s preparations for electronic health records and the implementation of the European Health Data Space Regulation.

When asked to consider what successful implementation of the life sciences strategy would look like in Ireland, panel members pointed to the need for clear and measurable KPIs (such as patient satisfaction, patient outcomes and key milestones), the need for the strategy to continuously evolve and to be capable of adaptation and review, and the importance of ongoing oversight of its implementation. 

Emphasis was also placed on continued collaboration and co-ordination across Government departments and with other stakeholders.

Timeline

Attendees heard that in addition to establishing a dedicated Policy Unit for Life Sciences and Space Enterprise, DETE is currently chairing a number of cross-departmental groups which have been established to input into the drafting of the national strategy and to ensure its coherence.  

While no specific timeframe for publication of the strategy has been given by DETE, it is anticipated that the strategy may be published in Q4 this year.

The forum provided a valuable opportunity for discussion and knowledge-sharing. We would like to thank IPHA, as well as the speakers, panellists and attendees, for contributing to a successful event.