Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan

EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2025 finalists, Ireland
Sharon Cunningham, CEO and Orlaith Ryan, CTO of Shorla Oncology


Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan are transforming access to cancer treatment.

Photographic portrait of Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan

In 2018, Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan founded their health care startup, Shorla Oncology, on a simple but powerful proposition: that cancer patients of all ages should receive the best form of treatment available to them. Determined to make a difference, Shorla Oncology developed four oncology drugs in its first seven years of operation. They all received FDA approval, a process that can take more than 12 years. 

With more than 30 years of combined experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Sharon and Orlaith have seen firsthand that new therapies for women and children are often nonexistent or in short supply. Focusing on areas where existing treatments are limited or inadequate for the target population, Shorla Oncology develops and commercializes innovative oncology drugs — always with the patient at the heart of everything the company does. 

Sharon and Orlaith aim to amplify and augment what they have built so that Shorla Oncology can operate on a much larger scale, maximizing patients’ access to treatment. In tandem, they are committed to growing and expanding the company’s pipeline of drugs to transform patient care and save millions of lives. By having a profoundly positive impact on patients’ lives, Shorla Oncology is on track to become a world leader in the specialty oncology space.

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