Croagh Patrick’s peak prevails on the Westport horizon, a beautiful city on the Atlantic coast of Ireland. The dominance of its economy, on the other hand, are not so beautiful units of the window without windows that produce the entire world supply of Botox to an American company. And Donald Trump wants pharmacy production to move home.
The US president this week increased his criticism of Irish operations of US companies. His threats to impose tariffs to encourage investors to reorganize are weighing 7,000 Westport persons: about 1,500 are employed by Abbvie to make wrinkles.
“People are holding their breath,” said Geraldine Horkan, chief executive of the Westport Chamber of Commerce, who worked at Allergan before her receiving from Abbvie in 2020. “It’s like a plane circulating in a holding model.”
Ireland has become a key base for American pharmacy companies including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
In addition to Botox which leaves Westport as powder vials to mix with saline solution before injection on the famous foreheads or to treat cerebral palsy or muscle spasms in Ireland, inflating active ingredients for medicines, including Viagra, Maunjaro’s high weight loss medicine.
Ireland has rushed to export pharmaceuticals to the US before falling a tariff ax: in February, 91 percent of all exports of its goods to the US were chemicals and related products, which include medical and pharmaceutical goods. Ireland Pharma exports to the US in the first two months of the year reached nearly € 20BN, compared to € 44BN for the entire year, according to official trade data.
Despite setting Trump’s global tariffs, which last week stopped at a 10 percent global basic rate pending talks on trade agreements with the EU and other countries, pharmaceuticals are currently without tariffs.
Foreign and Trade Minister of Ireland, Simon Harris, says it would be “inappropriate” and “strange” for the US to impose tariffs during negotiations.
But a comeback seems increasingly impossible. The US Department of Trade has launched an investigation “Section 232” on the sector that would allow the President to limit imports considered a threat to national security.
This can potentially lead to tariffs in “month or two,” US Secretary of Trade Howard Lutnick said.
Trump, who used a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin last month to complain that Ireland “received the entire American pharmaceutical industry in its sense” Monday again collided in the sector.
“We no longer do our medicines, our pharmaceuticals themselves. Drug companies are in Ireland and they are in many other places – China,” he said.
Allergan opened a factory to produce contact lenses and Eyecare products in Westport in 1977. Now, the real spinner of money is Botox but the facility also produces Eyecare Pharmaceuticals and 70 percent of Westport’s production has been sold to the US, according to the most represented Irish operation results from 2023.
Botox now has competitors that make chemically similar products – rival drugs include Dysport, produced by Ipssen and France’s ore from Merz, Germany – but Abbvie says she is convinced she can maintain her leadership position.
While Botox for cosmetic purposes brought $ 2,72BN to net income last year, according to Abbvie, Terrapeutic Botox marked $ 3.3bn. Tariffs would raise drug price for users, and cosmetic applications are not included in the US health insurance.
ABBVIE – which does not officially discover where it makes its products – invested € 160m in a second biology structure in Westport 2020 and production cannot be “relocated overnight,” said Peter Flynn, a local adviser and former International Tax and Finance Director at Allergan. “(Trump’s free remarks) are not doing any favor,” he said.
“By automating production lines and increasing quality standards, concentration in Ireland has changed the most multinationals now using qualified and experienced people, many of whom play a major role in R&D,” he added.
Ireland is the world’s third largest pharmacy exporter, with 90 sites supplying the EU and other countries, and the SH.BA more than € 10BN has been invested in the sector over the past decade. Denmark, Switzerland and Singapore are other countries with large pharmacy sectors now in Trump’s footage.
Many drug creators have responded by announcing large investments in the Johnson & Johnson has pledged $ 55 billion over the next four years, Eli Lilly is investing $ 27 billion, while Swiss drug manufacturer said last week he will invest $ 23 billion in production and R&D.
Pharmacy chiefs have written to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, warning that Europe risks losing € 100 billion in investment and R&D spending over the next five years, as US tariffs and EU proposed reforms for intellectual property protection make the EU less attractive.
But Ireland is uniquely sensitive to any Trump’s action: besides Big Pharma, it hosts the European headquarters or large operations of American technology giants, which von der Leyen has threatened to aim if tariff talks fail.
Techniques and Pharma make large tax contributions of corporations that have made large budget surpluses.
Botox has also helped Westport grow in a colorful, wonderful city of walking holidays, restaurants, hotels, stylish shops and traditional bars.
As well as being the city’s biggest employer, the company has been a prominent supporter and sponsor of local initiatives and sports teams. “It would be a massive loss,” if they were to leave, said Adrian Noonan, owner of the Knockranny House hotel, the first four -star hotel, located near the factory, which has been waiting for the visiting leaders and board meetings.
The new Pharma plants need regulatory approval, which could mean years of delay in transferring production to the US, but analysts said executives would have hit the brakes in future investment plans in Ireland.
“We are all extremely concerned,” said Philip Heaney, a local pharmacist. “They talk about Canada being the 51st state (sh.ba). But with Pharma, we’re ready.”
