Five of the world’s top-selling dozen medicines are produced in Ireland, and their sales will fall 52 percent to $13 billion by 2013 from $27 billion in 2010 as their patents expire, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on analysts’ estimates. They start with Pfizer Inc. (PFE)’s cholesterol treatment Lipitor (above), which loses its patent protection this month.

“From the moment they come off patent, it will be immediately reflected in export figures,” said Chris Van Egeraat, a lecturer in economic geography at the National University of Ireland Maynooth, who has studied the issue.

…Drugs companies in Ireland paid just over 1 billion euros of tax in 2010, according to PharmaChemical Ireland, or about a quarter of total company tax receipts.

 

Ireland Faces $26 Billion Export Headache As Drugs Stop Working (Cormac Mullen, Bloomberg)

THE COMPANY set up to administer the pension fund of the former boss of Irish Nationwide, Michael Fingleton, suffered a loss in 2010, according to an auditor’s report just filed.

It is the third successive year in which the unlimited company, Carezza, has suffered a loss.

The company’s issued share capital at the end of 2010 was €12,000.

The shares are held by Anne, William (jnr), Michael (jnr) and Eileen (jnr) Fingleton.

The directors of the company are Anne and William Fingleton, with the latter understood to be Mr Fingleton’s brother.

It was set up in 2007 when Mr Fingleton’s pension scheme with Irish Nationwide was wound up and assets equivalent to the liability figure of €27.6 million were transferred to Carezza.

…A report on Mr Fingleton’s pension arrangements drafted last year at the request of the Department of Finance said the assets in the Nationwide scheme had dropped to less than €4 million in value by April 2009.

 

Fingleton Pension Company Makes Loss (Irish Times)

The Museum HR Giger Bar  in Gruyères (there’s another at Chur) in Switzerland designed by artist HR Giger (he of Alien). Youtuber z0wyechi seems a little freaked.

Xenomargarita and a pack of mixed nuts please.

More pix here

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Youtuber David J Ellis sez:

This is a single-pipe alpine coaster in Mieders, Austria. You reach the summit via a cablecar and then sit on a small car with a brake lever and off you go. Having ridden it once using a little braking, I decided to try it a second time without using the brakes. This is SCARY!

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Not any more, folks…

ECB policymaker Juergen Stark (above) has warned the sovereign debt crisis had spread from the eurozone’s periphery to its core economies and was affecting economies outside of Europe.

“These are very challenging times… The sovereign debt crisis has re-intensified and is now spreading over to other countries including so-called core countries. This is a new phenomenon,” Mr Stark said in a speech to Ireland’s Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.

“The sovereign debt crisis is not only concentrated in Europe, most advanced economies are facing serious problems with their public debt.”

Fears about debt levels on both sides of the Atlantic hit stock markets (yesterday) evening.

Shares in Paris and Frankfurt ended down almost 3.5%, while London’s FTSE fell 2.5%.

This came after a warning from credit rating agency Moody’s that France’s high borrowing costs could affect its triple-A credit rating.

Debt crisis ‘has spread to core economies’ (RTE News)

Debt crisis spreads despite Spanish election result (Irish Times)

Hungary asks IMF/EU for financial help as ‘precautionary’ measure (Independent)

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As the NYPD heft journos out of the way in their ongoing clearance of Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, here’s a video from Mike Read and the crew behind the “bat signal” light projection displayed on The Verizon Building on November 17th as Occupy protesters crossed over the Brooklyn Bridge.

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