Cook Medical announces 16.5m R&D; investment in Limerick

Medical device company Cook Medical is to invest up to €16.5m over the next four years creating highly skilled positions in research and development activities at its Limerick site.

The new investment, which is being made with Government support through IDA Ireland, will focus on two key projects.

The first involves setting up a state-of-the-art research and development laboratory, which will foster innovation through enhanced collaboration with doctors and clinicians, developing new anatomical models to provide a more realistic environment for product evaluation and testing prior to commercial release.

The second will establish Cook Ireland as the key site for R&D for the Zilver product line of peripheral intervention devices. The Limerick-based site is currently the sole manufacturing plant for the Zilver PTX Drug-Eluting Peripheral Stent. This new investment will enable Cook Ireland to create an R&D team exclusively for this product pipeline and expand its current capabilities of endoscopy and urology product R&D.

Cook Medical, which the world’s largest privately owned medical devices company, set up its Irish operation in Limerick in 1996. Since then it has grown from eight employees to over 630, making it one of the leading medical device employers in the country.

The company’s dedicated R&D team, which recently won the Irish Medical Technology Company of the Year Award, has built strong relationships with local education institutions such as the University of Limerick, offering work experience opportunities and funding for collaborative research.

“The IDA’s continued recognition of the importance of R&D facilities for the future growth of the Irish med tech industry and Cook Medical in particular is warmly welcomed,” said Bill Doherty, Cook Medical executive vice-president EMEA.

“The IDA has been an outstanding partner of Cook Medical’s over the past 16 years.  Their support, coupled with R&D tax credits, has contributed to year-on-year growth and enabled target milestones to be achieved.

“This latest investment will help to future-proof Cook Medical’s commitment to Ireland, enabling us to lead the development of the next generation of medical devices and continue the improvement of patient outcomes.”