Curious disparity in pharmaceutical imports to Ireland vs the UK

realitykeeper

In 2017, Ireland spent $10 billion on pharmaceutical imports while the UK spent $33 billion on pharmaceuticals for the same year. The UK of course has an older population and it is 20 times that of Ireland. Is there an explanation why Ireland spends 7 times more per head of population on pharmaceuticals, than the UK does (on it`s older population)?

Pharmaceuticals account for 28% of Ireland`s total exports vs 6% for the UK, although this is just an aside, as it is not really relevant.

Sources:

http://www.worldstopexports.com/irelands-top-10-imports/

http://www.worldstopexports.com/united-kingdoms-top-10-imports/

TiGeR KiNgS

Ireland is a pharma hub.

Many of the biggest pharma companies in the world have located here, so would distort the figures.
A bit like the Leprechaun economics problem of a couple of years ago.

You would need to adjust the headline figure to exclude B2B sales or simply compare retail sales.

Geuze

realitykeeper wrote: »

In 2017, Ireland spent $10 billion on pharmaceutical imports while the UK spent $33 billion on pharmaceuticals for the same year. The UK of course has an older population and it is 20 times that of Ireland. Is there an explanation why Ireland spends 7 times more per head of population on pharmaceuticals, than the UK does (on it`s older population)?

Pharmaceuticals account for 28% of Ireland`s total exports vs 6% for the UK, although this is just an aside, as it is not really relevant.

Sources:

http://www.worldstopexports.com/irelands-top-10-imports/

http://www.worldstopexports.com/united-kingdoms-top-10-imports/

The exports are relevant, as much of the imports will be raw materials to be processed here for export.

Skedaddle

You'd need to see the statistics for pharmacy sales for prescription and non prescription medications to get a comparison.

Those figures you're looking at relate to the pharmaceutical industry moving around products to process.