CapX, February 13, Phil Radford
AstraZeneca’s plan to build a $350m pharmaceuticals factory in Ireland rather than the UK was 100% predictable. And it’s not just a tragedy for Britain’s life sciences. As a paper published by the Centre for Brexit Policy in November showed, the long-term failure of UK pharma highlights how UK policy discussion is light years behind our competitors when it comes to understanding what drives prosperity.
Offshoring in the UK’s pharma manufacturing is nothing new. The trend kicked off back in 2011, when US-based Pfizer shifted its Viagra-making plant from Sandwich in Kent to Ringaskiddy, near Cork. This event marked the start of a five-year plunge in UK pharma manufacturing and exports, as UK haemorrhaged pharma manufacturing to plants elsewhere in the EU.
The data is traumatising. According to ONS, output in UK pharma manufacturing declined by roughly one-third from 2010 to 2015. Gross value added actually halved. Where did the manufacturing go? Ireland, and elsewhere in the EU. And we know that because while our imports from outside the EU flatlined after 2010, our imports from EU countries rocketed, almost doubling from 2010 to 2017.
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