Irish pharma firms confident despite Trump's threats but experts warn of turbulent times
Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association CEO Oliver O’Connor said US pharma companies in Ireland have 'invested for the long term'. Picture: iStock
The head of a representative body for Ireland’s pharma industry is confident that the 50,000-strong workforce in the country will still be here in five years, despite US president Donald Trump’s threats to “take back what has been stolen”.
Ireland is one of the world’s leading exporters of pharmaceuticals, with €42bn of medicines exported worldwide, and Mr Trump made the industry a particular focus of his Oval Office meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Wednesday.
Mr Trump said Ireland had taken the manufacturing of medicines from the US through low taxes, adding that America would “take back what was stolen from it” and “take back” companies from the likes of Ireland.
Government sources said that Mr Trump’s comments were “not unexpected” and that while some large US firms, such as Pfizer and Eli Lilly, have committed to investments in the US, there are no signs that they are planning to leave Ireland.
Oliver O’Connor, the chief executive of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, said that the industry — which accounts for billions of Ireland’s overall corporation tax take — was in Ireland for over 30 years for a number of reasons, not just historically low tax rates.
He said there are around 30,000 employed in the sector by US companies, but that companies have “invested for the long term”.
He said decisions to invest had been made many years ago, and the larger companies were “continuing to build out that investment”.
However, former CEO of the Irish Exporter's Association and economics writer John Whelan and economics writer John Whelan said the second Trump administration could lead to a “gradual decline” in the size of the industry:
“Of the 10 top-selling drugs last year, eight were biologics and Ireland leads in manufacturing in that sector.
"They take eight to 10 years to develop so, in reality, the actual implementation of moving that short term might not happen. In the long term, there could be a gradual decline. It hits the legs under what we’ve built.
“Long-haul we need to accept that reliance on the US market will be undermined.
"Government and IDA need to be proactive in moving away from that reliance on the US market.”
With tariffs and a trade war looming, Carol Lynch, a partner in BDO Ireland's Customs and International Trade Services department, told the that she has told clients to “assume that the risk is high”.
“President Trump has been clear that tariffs are his favoured method, and he’s been pretty clear that this will happen and we have to assume it will.”
Ms Lynch said her advice to companies who export to the US is to “get as much exported in March as possible”.
“If you add 25% of the cost of your goods, is it going to be viable to sell there? If you look at Canada, we have a free trade agreement — so it might be worth diverting to alternatives.
"But these are not overnight fixes. I personally don’t see any good in this. I’m not an economist, but all I see is it increasing protectionism and costs going up for consumers.”
