Ireland Drug Exports

Ireland's drug industry strength may become a weakness as the country is now dealing with one of the worst economic difficulties of its modern history. In the country of Ireland there are five of the world's top selling dozen medications.

Is it known that the country sales will negatively fall at a 52% to a total of $13 billion by the year 2013 because their patents will expire at that time. The first oral medication that will loose its patent protection is the cholesterol treatment by the name Lipitor from Pfizer Inc. From the very first moment that the medication comes off patent, it will immediately reflect in the export figures. There is an estimation of nineteen billion euros from export that is worth from British exports that may be at risk due to a range of medications will fall off patent.

Ireland is the largest net exporter of medical products and pharmaceuticals in the world. This country began luring drug companies in the 1970s. Ireland used its 12.5 percent tax rate to attract some of the largest pharmaceutical companies around the globe.

Nowadays ten of the biggest drug companies in the world have a facility on Ireland such as: Pfizer, Eli Lilly Inc, Merck & Co Inc, etc. Some of the products manufactured on the country are: Botox (Wrinkle smoother), generic Viagra (against Erectile Dysfunction) and many more. The country exported in 2010 a total of 50 billion euros of pharmaceutical products and organic chemicals accounting to a 55% of merchandise products. By the first half of the year 2011 this grew to a 58%. It is known that in 2010 drug companies in Ireland paid about one billion of tax.

Ireland labor costs will fall fourteen percent relatively to the European Union average. They had also managed to maintain its tax rate from its European partners. Several opinions stated that the manufacture of patented drugs will be taken by specialized generic drug companies when the patents end. Most of these generic companies are located in India.