Why does Irish medtech have to move to America to survive?

'We are good at building medtech companies in this country'

A dedicated medtech fund within ISIF would give a small Irish company a serious domestic investor to build around. File picture 

A wearable sensor designed in Dublin is now in use in 20 clinics across 11 American states. It was built by Vertigenius, a Trinity College Dublin spin-out. The sensor lets clinicians monitor vertigo patients remotely, and it completed its United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registration last October. When the company raised €2.55m in April, part of the money went towards a sales team in America.

Plenty of Irish medtech companies have gone the same way. The customers are elsewhere, and so is the capital. In the first three months of this year, international investors provided 85% of all the venture capital raised by Irish companies, and Irish investors the rest. A few years ago, that split was closer to half and half.