Isle of Man gets more support for its BioMed sector

The Isle of Man has been home to leading biomed companies for the past four years. Proving its potential as a biomed location, a public/private advisory board has been established to further support development of the Isle of Man’s thriving BioMed sector.

The Manx BioMed sector currently comprises of 11 companies, ranging from device manufacture, clinical trials, compliance and data capture organisations. It employs more than 100 staff and has had a 13% annual growth in jobs since 2013.

BioMedical is the application of the natural sciences to clinical medicine.

The Manx Healthcare and Life Sciences advisory board will provide help to further implement the strategy, which is focused on sector growth.

It will do so by creating a proposition for the island with possible options including developing deeper research partnerships, exploring changes to legislation and attracting private sector BioMed investment.

Chairman of the Manx healthcare and life sciences advisory board Dave Taggart said: “The Manx BioMed sector is already home to a diverse set of companies and, with the right investment and support, could represent a much greater future opportunity.”

“It is likely that jurisdiction will be an important plank of any strategy, and also the use of the Isle of Man, with its small, stable, cohesive population and single payer/provider for all health and social care services as a test bed to demonstrate and evaluate new technologies.”

“It will be critical to establish a clear public mandate and a strong system of governance for both these things – we cannot play ‘fast and loose’ with the safety or privacy of our population.”

Taggart said the central challenge for the advisory board will be “to work with our comparative strengths, and turn our comparative weaknesses into advantages.”

“The health and life sciences industries offer a huge commercial opportunity, as technological advances in biology and informatics meet with an ever-increasing demand for healthcare. This is driven by an aging global population”, Taggart said.

The Isle of Man Department of Economic Development (DED) and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) are working to support the growth of the sector as part of a BioMed Strategy created last year.

Minister for economic development Laurence Skelly said the creation of the advisory board is a great example of the government and the private sector working together for the benefit of a small but vibrant sector of the economy.

The advisory board’s first meeting was held on 16 June. The role of the board is also to give advice to both the DED and DHSC regarding healthcare and life sciences and provide assistance to businesses in the sector.

Minister for health and social care Kate Beecroft said she is delighted that the advisory board has been established to develop opportunities in the healthcare and life sciences sector.