Irish medtech company HeathBeacon has launched an EPA licensed green lab facility in Dublin, which will serve as a circular economy promoter and research centre to deal with sharp medical waste.

The facility was launched today (8 April) in partnership with Enterprise Ireland and HeathBeacon’s first green lab partner, pharmaceutical company Novartis Ireland. The partnership’s goal is to give patients on Novartis treatments a way to sustainably dispose of their medical sharp waste.

HealthBeacon is a Dublin-based digital therapeutics company that was founded in 2013 by CEO Jim Joyce and CTO Kieran Daly. Last year, it appointed former Tánaiste Mary Harney to its board of directors.

The company has developed a Smart Sharps Bin and companion app, creating an injection care management system that aims to help patients manage injectable medications, adhere to treatment schedules and safely dispose of used sharps.

From HealthBeacon’s green lab facility, the goal is to give Smart Sharps bins to Novartis’ rheumatology, dermatology and neurology patients. Technology within the bin lets the patient know it is nearing capacity.

The full bin is then collected from the patient’s home, undergoes a validated washing regime and will then be returned to the patient, to provide an environmentally friendly service for the patients.

An estimated 16bn injections are administered worldwide every year, but not all of these needles are properly disposed of, according to the World Health Organisation in 2018.

Speaking at the launch event, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar, TD, said this generation needs to take care of the planet to pass it on in a better condition than we inherited it.

“A big part of this involves using fewer of the earth’s resources and recycling, repairing and reusing materials more often,” Varadkar said. “It’s called the circular economy.

“Medical waste I know can be a particular challenge given the need to make sure quality and safe standards are high and consistent and sterile to prevent infection. But there are solutions,” Varadkar said.

HealthBeacon had a successful 2021, with a multimillion-dollar deal in June leading to plans to triple its team and a funding round at the end of September that raised €6m. Last December, the medtech went public on Euronext’s growth market in Dublin, raising a total of €25m.

Joyce said: “Unfortunately, today billions of injectable waste devices and hundreds of millions of sharps bins end up in household trash, landfills or incineration facilities. Today, in partnership with Novartis in Ireland we are taking a major step in reversing those unsustainable practices.”

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