Shorla and its two female founders Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan are this year’s recipients of our Business award, having had an incredible 2023.
The Irish-founded healthcare start-up opened the year by raising €7.8 million in funding having already pushed ahead with a US expansion during the pandemic. In March, they secured FDA approval to bring a speciality drug designed to treat T-cell leukaemia for children to the market. By October it had secured €33 million to accelerate the growth of its portfolio of drugs.
Now in its sixth year, Shorla Oncology is a Clonmel, Tipperary and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company with an advanced pipeline of innovative oncology drugs for rare, orphan and paediatric cancers. And just a month ago, Shorla acquired the oncology and autoimmune drug Jylamvo, which can be used to treat a number of conditions and is designed to avoid the need to split or crush pills, providing a vital alternative for patients who may have difficulty swallowing pills. The founders are striving to meet many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals too, including good health and well-being and gender equality. “We’re committed to developing and commercialising innovative cancer therapies in areas where existing treatments are inadequate,” says Cunningham, adding that “as a company that was co-founded by women, we aim to inspire, develop and support the next generation of women leaders”.
THE BUSINESS AWARD
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