Full coverage: Pharmaceuticals

Ireland hosts several international pharmaceutical giants and the companies are keen to get their voices heard in Brussels via Ireland.

Founded by the North’s first Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser Professor Helen McCarthy, Phion Therapeutics had a pipeline of exciting treatments. But now administrators have been appointed to the firm, which is backed by a Hong Kong top-40 pharmaceutical company.

Turner Construction Company has acquired the Cork-based engineering group to gain access to its sizeable data centre and pharma projects around Europe.

Irish PLCs are revealing what their businesses looks like in a year when no new virus, variant or war raised its head to disrupt them. It would be very rosy were it not for the stubbornly high interest rates.

The twin engines of the Irish economy were sputtering amid lay-offs and contractions. They are firing once again, fuelled by research and technology.

Irish headquartered Endo is seeking approval for a twin track US-Irish insolvency package. Globally, the group has been subject to thousands of lawsuits over opioid and mesh products, including proceedings in Ireland.

The Department of Finance’s reference to weak pharmaceutical exports identifies the US pharma multinational as the latest contributor to the fall in corporation tax receipts below last year’s level for the first 10 months of 2023.

The pharmaceutical group has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US for the second time in two years, with its Dublin HQ and IP centre due to follow suit here this week.

No one really thinks that Ireland’s €250 billion domestic economy is generating €200 billion in profits for American multinational firms. To recover its tax base, the US should reform its own rules.

The potential of magic mushrooms to help people suffering from severe depression, PTSD and anorexia in a novel way has moved from low-key scientific studies to a point where regulatory approval may be on the horizon. Irish practitioners and businesses have entered this race, but many questions remain.