MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Â — Two members of the House of Delegates recently completed an advance visit to one of the most technologically advanced medical research and manufacturing areas of the world and now say future trips would be beneficial.
Dels. Geno Chiarelli, R-Monongalia, and Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, traveled to Galway, Ireland which is known for employing one-third of the medical technology workforce in the country and is home to Boston Scientific and Medtronic.
“It is the medical technology capital of the world,” Chiarelli said Thursday on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.” “There is so much research and development there, there is so much medical manufacturing there, and that is everything you might not think of when you think of medical technology and hospitals.”
The purpose of the trip is to clearly understand what Galway has to offer and what businesses or manufacturers could be interested in relocating to the Mountain State to better serve their American customers.
“A, if we think it is worth returning with a bigger group of people from West Virginia to sell the state as a whole,” Chiarelli said. “B, just to keep our ear to the ground to see if people are interested in expanding manufacturing.”
In addition to established medical-related businesses, there are also organizations that can assist entrepreneurs through the prototype phase in developing a product or technology, Chiarelli said.
“There are no stock one-size-fits-all answers for solving a lot of today’s medical problems so companies are really learning how to adapt to that by integrating AI into their supply chain management—it’s really remarkable.”
Chiarelli said our location in relation to major population centers and a dedicated workforce is very attractive to manufacturers. The manufacturers abroad could save a substantial amount of money by moving closer to their American customers, and a West Virginia location would do just that.
“We talked about where they are geographically and why West Virginia could potentially suit them better, and another thing companies talk about that concerns when they think about their bottom line is labor costs,” Chiarelli said.
Based on what was gathered during the short meeting, Chiarelli wants to assemble a larger group of delegates and return next year. There are plans to attend as a presenter to layout benefits West Virginia can provide for companies that might consider dual manufacturing sites to serve customers on both continents.
“I think they want to do a lot of stuff based off of neuroscience because the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute up here in Morgantown has done a lot of really big things, especially when it comes to addiction and PTSD, some of the things we have more of here,” Chiarelli said.