The summit of Croagh Patrick dominates the horizon of Westport, a pretty town on the Irish Atlantic coast. Dominating its economy, on the other hand, are the window units without windows without windows that make the entire global Botox offer for an American company. And Donald Trump wants pharmaceutical production going home.
The American president this week has intensified his criticism of the Irish operations of American companies. Its threats to impose prices to encourage investors to reshape themselves on the 7,000 people in Westport: some 1,500 of them are employed by Abbvie to manufacture the drug in Érafluge.
“People hold back their breath,” said Geraldine Horkan, Managing Director of the Westport Chamber of Commerce, who worked at Allergan before her Takeover by Abbvie In 2020. “It's like an airplane that turns into a support model.”
Ireland has become a major basis for American pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
In addition to the Botox – which leaves Westport as mix of mixing powder with a saline solution before injection in celebrity fronts or to treat cerebral paralysis or muscle spasms – factories in Ireland produce active ingredients for drugs, including Viagra, Mounjaro weight loss and statins for high cholesterol.
Ireland rushed to export pharmaceutical products to the United States before any price ax fell: in February, 91% of all its exports of goods to the United States were chemicals and related products, which included medical and pharmaceutical products. Irish pharmaceutical exports to the United States in the first two months of the year reached nearly 20 billion euros, compared to 44 billion euros for all year round, according to official commercial data.
Despite the taxation of global prices by Trump, which he took a break last week at a basic world rate of 10% of talks awaiting commercial transactions with the EU and other countries, pharmaceuticals are currently exempt from prices.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Ireland, Simon Harris, says that he would be “inappropriate” and “bizarre” for the United States to impose prices during the negotiation.
But a reprieve seems more and more improbable. The US trade department has launched an investigation “under article 232” in the sector which would allow the president to restrict imports considered as a threat to national security.
This could potentially lead to prices in the “next month or two,” said US Secretary to Trade Howard Lutnick.
Trump, who used a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin last month to complain that Ireland “has within reach of the American pharmaceutical industry” Monday “in the sector.
“We are no longer doing our own drugs, our own pharmaceutical products. Pharmaceutical companies are in Ireland and are in many other places-China,” he said.
Allergan opened a factory to produce a solution of contact lens and Eyecare products in Westport in 1977. Now the real-spinner in money is Botox, but the installation also produces Eyecare pharmaceutical products and 70% of Westport's production is sold in the United States, according to the most recently deposited results of the Irish operation, 2023.
Botox now has competitors manufacturing chemically similar products – Rivals medicines include Dysport, produced by Ipsen and Xeomin de France de Merz in Germany – but Abbvie said he is convinced that it can Maintain your leadership position.
While Botox for cosmetic purposes has brought $ 2.72 billion in net income Last year, according to Abbvie, the therapeutic Botox reported $ 3.3 billion. Prices would increase the price of medicines for users, and cosmetic applications are not covered by American health insurance.
ABBVIE – which does not officially disclose where it manufactures its products – has invested 160 million euros in a second biological establishment in Westport 2020 and production cannot be “offbeat overnight,” said Peter Flynn, local advisor and former international director of tax and finance at Allergan. “The inexpensive remarks of (Trump) do not make any favors,” he said.
“With the automation of production lines and ever-increasing quality standards, emphasis in Ireland has changed, multinationals now employing highly qualified and experienced people, many of whom play a key role in R&D,” he added.
Ireland is the world third largest pharmaceutical exporter, With 90 sites that provide the EU and other countries as well as the United States. More than 10 billion euros have been invested in the sector in the last decade. Denmark, Switzerland and Singapore are other countries with large pharmaceutical sectors in Trump's eyes.
Many drug manufacturers have responded by announcing significant investments in the United States. Johnson & Johnson has promised $ 55 billion over the next four years, Eli Lilly invests $ 27 billion, while Swiss drug manufacturer Novartis said last week that she would invest $ 23 billion in manufacturing and R&D.
The pharmaceutical bosses have written to the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen warning that Europe risks losing 100 billion euros in investment and R&D expenses over the next five years, because the American prices and the EU reforms proposed on the protections of intellectual property makes the EU less attractive.
But Ireland is only vulnerable to any Trump action: in addition to Big Pharma, it hosts the European headquarters or major operations of American technology giants, that Von Der Leyen threatened If tariff discussions fail.
Technology and pharmacy make huge contributions to corporate tax that have made huge budgetary surpluses.
The Botox has also helped Westport to become a colorful and lively city of pleasure festivals, restaurants, hotels, chic stores and traditional bars.
In addition to being the largest employer in the city, the company was a leading supporter and a sponsor of local initiatives and sports teams. “It would be a massive loss”, if they left, said Adrian Noonan, owner of the Knockranny House hotel, the first four -star hotel in the city, located next to the factory, which welcomed visiting executives and meetings of the board of directors.
New pharmaceutical factories need regulatory approval, which could mean years of delay in the transfer of production in the United States, but analysts have said that managers have already slammed the brakes on future investment plans in Ireland.
“We are all extremely worried,” said Philip Heaney, a local pharmacist. “They speak of Canada being the 51st state (United States). But with the pharmacy, we are almost. “
