Irish pharma exports to the US jump to 10.5 billion euros

Irish pharmaceutical and medical product exports to the US rose by more than 450% year-on-year in February, the second monthly increase in a month, data released on Tuesday, the 15th of April showed, suggesting that US drugmakers may be stockpiling medicines ahead of potential tariffs, according to Reuters.
The US administration began investigating imports of medicines on Monday, as President Donald Trump indicated he plans to impose tariffs on medicines and other goods soon.
Trump sees the production of medicines in Europe, and in particular in Ireland, as a problem that he plans to tackle through tariffs. More than ten of the world’s largest drug manufacturers have plants in Ireland, where many of them produce medicines or active ingredients for the US market.
In January, Ireland saw a sharp increase in exports of medicines to the US, when they rose by 130% to 9.4 billion euros (10.7 billion US dollars).
This rose to 10.5 billion euro in February, compared to 1.9 billion euro in the same month last year, the Irish Central Statistics Office said.
Some drugmakers have taken the unusual step of sending more medicines to the US by plane in the face of tariff threats, two executives and two logistics companies told Reuters last month.
The Central Bank of Ireland explained that the increase in drug exports from Ireland to the US since July last year was due to the production of highly sought-after weight-loss drugs, but suggested that the recent increase could be partly due to stockpiling.
A 34% increase in Irish exports to the US last year led to a record US trade deficit with Ireland of 50 billion euros.