Just over five years ago in February 2020, Paul Reid was heading up Pfizer’s Ireland division when then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar raised the potential for developing a rapid vaccine against the looming Covid-19 pandemic, during a site visit to the pharma giant’s Grange Castle site.
“We had just entered into a partnership with a small company called BioNtech and all the noises were positive,” Reid tells the Business Post.
“I had no more information than that at the time, but I gave a positive spin on it. I said a vaccine was certainly possible. I remember the Taoiseach at the time said, ‘That would be actually ground breaking.’”
What ensued over the next nine months was the most ambitious, innovative and accelerated vaccine development programme in history.
“We were discovering, developing and manufacturing all in parallel to get it ready by the end of 2020—and that was achieved,” Reid recalls.
The innovation of that period, and the successful collaboration between the public and private sector in the name of public health, are lessons Reid has carried into his new role as managing director of Genseq, the genetic diagnostics and genomics services company.
“After 21 years at Pfizer, I felt I had a great opportunity to channel my experience into something new and transformative. Also, with what I learned from the pandemic about trust and collaboration, I felt there was an opportunity here to deliver a clinical genetic service for the people of Ireland that doesn’t exist today in any coordinated fashion.”
Cutting-edge
Walking through the extensive Genseq laboratory in Cherrywood – and past lines of gene sequencing machines that resemble office photocopiers but are worth over €1 million each – Reid explains the cutting-edge science the company is looking to commercialise for better patient outcomes.
Genetic medicine is a revolutionary and fast growing diagnostic and treatment pathway for patients with a range of diseases. It uses genetic sequencing to identify disease causing genes, allowing precision medicines and gene therapies to be developed and administered in a much more targeted and effective manner.
“What we have now in Dublin with Genseq is a state of the art, purpose-built genomics laboratory, which has the scale to deliver what Ireland needs in terms of patient and clinician needs,” Reid says.
Genseq founders and healthcare investors Declan Devine and John Gannon purchased the Cherrywood site as a fully-fitted out genetic sequencing lab from now wound-down Genuity Science Ireland in 2023.
Reid won’t disclose the size of that deal, but Genuity’s accounts from that year record a January 1 value on its lab and equipment of around €12 million, which by year end had changed hands to Genseq.
While Genuity’s business model was to harvest genetic data to sell for research purposes, Genseq’s is very different.
It is focusing instead on breaking into the clinical genetic testing market, but not holding onto any of the genetic data it handles.
Last year, Genseq became the first private Irish firm to get accreditation to provide clinical genetic services to hospitals, meaning doctors now have the option–outside of a limited public hospital capacity–to send patient samples for gene sequencing here in Ireland.
“We’re the first private company in Ireland to secure ISO accreditation for clinical genetic testing. There is some public hospital capability, but I would say it’s very fragmented and very under-resourced. There’s still a massive reliance in Ireland on overseas providers for clinical genetic testing. They are just the facts,” Reid says.
Now accredited to provide clinical genetic sequencing for cardiovascular disease, hereditary cancers, and prenatal testing, Genseq plans in the year ahead to secure further accreditation for somatic cancer tumour testing, kidney conditions, neurological disease and eye disorders. On top of that, they want to expand their accreditation from just blood samples to saliva samples as well.
“We’re trying to do things fast, but in a very targeted way. We’re going to offer clinical genetic tests where there’s already a demand. So tests that clinicians want, and patients need,” Reid says.
“And because we’re a data processor as a company, we’ll only process that data on behalf of the requesting clinician. Then we’ll return the data to the clinician, or we’ll destroy it,” he adds.
Medical revolution
As far as Reid is concerned, we are still only in the foothills of the genetic medicine revolution.
“You’re going to see an awful lot more precision medicines coming to market. You’re going to see a lot more companies investing in trying to identify drug targets earlier by looking at genomic mutations, looking at the genetic make-up of patients with certain conditions, and then understanding can they find a drug that can target that mutation that’s causing the disease?” he says.
To that end, Genseq will also service the biopharma industry as a client, for the development of gene targeting or precision drugs, as well as developing its clinical testing capacity.
“I think the bigger volume of samples will be in that clinical space. But what tends to happen in biopharma is the volume of samples could be lower, but the value is higher. Biopharma will still probably be secondary to clinical in time,” he says.
To be able to win that clinical business from referring doctors and hospital laboratories, Genseq has had to apply to become an approved provider of genetic testing to public and private hospitals around the country.
Once approved, Genseq can be booked to carry out the specific tests it is accredited for, alongside a list of other international providers.
“We’ve had to go hospital-by-hospital, and every hospital is different. We will continue that until we get to a point, hopefully in the future, where there is a more centralised approach in Ireland. But at the moment, it is hospital-by-hospital, clinician-by-clinician, laboratory-by-laboratory.”
“There’s a huge number of samples leaving this country going to international providers. Is that necessary now that we have an accredited provider in Ireland?”
Business comes Genseq’s way when a clinician decides to use them, as Reid hopes more and more will–because of their fast turnaround times, and the novelty of their in-country capacity.
“What does a patient want when they’re sending off a blood sample for testing? Or what does the clinician want? They want the results back quickly, so disease causing genes can be identified quickly, a diagnosis made quickly, and a treatment plan made quickly,” Reid says.
“There’s a huge number of samples, patient blood samples leaving this country going to international providers. And you kind of wonder, is that necessary now that we have an accredited provider like ourselves in Ireland?.”
Reid’s ultimate vision is for the government to build up a national capacity for genetic testing, tendering out to firms like Genseq, while simultaneously building up a publicly-run repository of genomics data for future health research in Ireland.
“It’s all very fragmented at the moment. What we really need is a national coordinated clinical genetic testing service in Ireland, and that should be driven by the HSE,” Reid says.
“I’d love to see some form of a public-private partnership, whereby we can partner with the state, with the HSE, to deliver a national clinical genetic testing service from here… They could put it out for tender so the various providers can compete for that business.”
Tariffs
Despite having now left the pharma business, Reid has been watching with interest as US president Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals and specifically called out of Ireland’s success in attracting American pharma companies here.
“I’m not surprised that it’s getting so much attention, because the impact is potentially so big,” Reid says.
“I think it’s going to be very hard to uproot. There’s no logic in uprooting what’s already here”
Domestic talent was a chief reason companies located and continued to invest here, he adds.
“The driver, certainly in terms of continued investment in Ireland, has been around the talent that’s here, and the capability to be able to put staff into the sites that can actually manufacture at a very high quality level,” Reid says.
“I think we’ve been a very receptive environment for US pharma as well, in terms of IP, protecting innovation, and R&D incentives.”
Despite all the combative talk from the US, Reid ultimately thinks many of the large pharma firms in Ireland are not going anywhere anytime soon.
“We’re now exporting to, I don’t know how many countries worldwide, but it’s incredibly significant. And you don’t just take a massive risk on, reinvesting in other geographical jurisdictions, unless you’re going to get at least the same, if not better,” he says.
“From my own experience, I think it’s going to be very hard to uproot. There’s no logic in uprooting what’s already here. The staff are here. The capability, the skill set, the education around it is all here,” argues Reid.
“Pharma has been here since the 1950s. You don’t undo that overnight,” he says.
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