Viagra patent expiration in Ireland

On the international financial news, the strength of the Ireland's drug industry may turn eventually into a weakness due to the economic slump that this European country is facing.

Ireland produces five of the world's top-selling dozen drugs and is the world's largest exporter of pharmaceuticals and eight of the 10 biggest drug companies in the world have Irish facilities, including Pfizer, manufacturing a large spectrum of products like Viagra and Botox, and due to the imminent patent expiration, sales will fall 52 percent by 2013 as their patents will start expiring, according to data compiled by Bloomberg financial news based on analysts estimates. It starts with the first of the five drugs that will lose their patent, Pfizer's cholesterol treatment Lipitor, which loses its patent protection on this coming month, December 2011. The Viagra patent is the most coveted one, and losing it will certainly generate the biggest impact amidst this crisis.

Chris Van Egeraat, a lecturer in economic geography at NUI Maynooth and analyst of financial news, believes that the manufacture of patented drugs will be taken over by specialized companies, many of them located in India, producing drugs like the generic Viagra, "Kamagra". Van Egeraat estimates about 19 billion euros ($26 billion) worth of Irish exports may be at risk as a range of drugs including so-called blockbuster medicines fall off patent. That might be a rock in the path of Ireland's plans of exporting its way out of crisis, a year after the nation followed Greece in seeking an international bailout.

Ireland is the largest net exporter of pharmaceuticals and medical products in the world, according to Dublin-based industry group "PharmaChemical Ireland" as they have a large net of online pharmacies created to promote the sale of different drugs and a place where you can buy Viagra, Heperin and Haloperidol among others drugs. As the world is being intrigued by the financial news coming from Ireland and the deadline for the patent expiration of the drugs is getting closer, the Finance Minister Michael Noonan assures that they are doing everything they can to prevent this falling of rates, "The rate is "our oil, we're not giving it away", said Noonan in a speech last month. However, the upcoming expiration of the Viagra patent is a certainty, and while this might spell doom for a sector of Ireland's pharmaceutical industry, it also means joy for a big number of generic drugs manufacturers.