Almost, but only almost, safely landed without a flight delay, we were welcomed by the foreign trade delegate Josef Treml in “his” city and after a first walk through Dublin we were welcomed at a meet-and-greet.
The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research & Training (NIBRT), based in Dublin, trains 4.500 professionals annually and offers a wide range of short courses on all aspects of biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
We attended a workshop on 'advanced therapy medicinal products', commonly referred to as cell and gene therapies, at the state-of-the-art facility on the first morning. What these therapies are, how they work, current manufacturing techniques and possible future trends were part of the presentation.
We learned about viral vectors, nucleases and the broader field of gene therapy, as well as cellular immunotherapies and stem cells. We also learned how companies ensure the quality of these products.
The second morning was devoted to the topic 'Biopharmaceutical 'Facility of the Future'', which gave us an in-depth look at how cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are manufacturing processes , technical learning and quality assurance can revolutionize.
On Monday afternoon we were able to get to know Accenture as a company. Accenture Plc, based in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the world's largest service providers in the field of corporate and strategy consulting as well as technology and outsourcing, with around 624.000 employees. The company generated total net sales of $2021 billion in fiscal 50,5.
A networking evening with representatives of the Irish MedTech Association and BiopharmaChem Ireland as well as the Austrian Ambassador Thomas Nader rounded off the densely packed program on Monday.
WuXi Biologics, China's leading biologics drug maker, invested EUR 325 million in a new biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing facility in Dundalk, WuXi Biologics' first-ever production investment in Europe, making it the company's first investment of this magnitude outside of China and creating around 400 jobs in the region Region.
The brand new facility is situated between Ireland's two largest cities, Dublin and Belfast, we reached it in less than an hour by bus on Tuesday afternoon.
We had to say goodbye to beautiful Ireland sooner than we would have liked. The Austrian delegation was not only able to take away many impressions and ideas, but also make important contacts!
Thank you JOANNEUM RESEARCH, bisy, ZETA and Single use support and Joseph Treml!
Some photos of the delegation trip
The trip was financed by the WKO, Go International and Life Science Austria unterstützt.
