Pharma patent cliff continues to eat into country’s export performance

The patent cliff continues to eat into Ireland’s export figures but on the plus side the country enjoyed an increase in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus.

Preliminary export and import figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for Aug 2013 show there was a massive 17% or €1.4bn decline in the value of Irish exports in Aug 2013 compared to the same month last year.

Merrion Economics chief economist, Alan McQuaid, said this was the effect of expiring patents on drugs such as Viagra and Lipitor which had been huge drivers of Irish export figures.