Ireland ranks second behind the United States in the Global Industry Competitiveness Index 2026, published on 4 November by BAK Economics for Swiss trade body scienceindustries. Ireland scores 123 against 124 for the US. The report credits very high productivity driven by multinational profits, and flags clear weaknesses in growth and innovation.
The index covers the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in 40 countries, which the authors say account for over 95% of global gross value added in the two sectors. Its English executive summary states: "Ireland consolidates its second place on the basis of a very high level of productivity, but also shows clear weaknesses." The study was written to assess Switzerland, so Ireland gets only a few passages. The full report is in German, and the translations of it below are ours.
- Rank: Ireland is second of 40 countries in the Global Industry Competitiveness Index (GICI) 2026, with a score of 123 against 124 for the US and 118 for Switzerland.
- Main strength: Ireland "dominates" the market position dimension, thanks to exceptionally high productivity and the third highest value added in the sector.
- Biggest move: Ireland climbed from 11th to 2nd on location quality. The report does not explain why.
- Weak spots: Performance fell again to 22nd, and Ireland's innovation position remains below average despite a slight improvement.
- Key caveat: the report says Irish productivity is very strongly driven by the onshoring of multinational profits. The index was commissioned by a Swiss industry association and weighted to Swiss industry structure.
How close is Ireland to the top of the ranking?
Very close. The report's top ten chart puts one point between the US and Ireland, and five points between Ireland and Switzerland. The executive summary says the gap between Switzerland and the two leaders has widened further. Scores are rounded in the chart, and the average country is set at 100.
| Country and rank | Score |
|---|---|
| 1. United States | 124 |
| 2. Ireland | 123 |
| 3. Switzerland | 118 |
| 4. Denmark | 116 |
| 5. Netherlands | 109 |
| 6. United Kingdom | 108 |
| 7. South Korea | 108 |
This is not a sudden rise. scienceindustries said in November 2024 that Ireland "slips from first to third place". The GICI 2025 report then moved Ireland up to second, also because of pharmaceutical productivity. The 2026 report says Ireland has held that place.
What is behind Ireland's second place?
The report says Ireland keeps second place mainly because of its strong market position in pharmaceuticals, supported by what it calls an attractive location policy. It is direct about the cause. It names a tax system that encourages international companies, especially American ones, to set up headquarters in Ireland as the main reason Ireland leads this dimension.
The report describes Irish productivity as exceptionally high. Only Ireland exceeds Switzerland on productivity level. It also says that the onshoring of multinational profits gives Ireland the third highest value added in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Readers of our report on how phantom exports distort Irish GDP will recognise a related measurement problem.
The second driver is new. Ireland rose from 11th to 2nd on location quality, behind Switzerland and ahead of Singapore. This dimension covers infrastructure, stability, business dynamics and skills, market access and regulation, and tax burden. The report gives no reason for the jump and no Irish result for any of those five areas.
Which metrics are weak?
The report names two. The first is Performance, which measures real growth in value added and in output per worker from 2019 to 2024. It calls this a relative weakness for Ireland, says it has fallen again, and places Ireland 22nd. That is in the lower half of the 40 countries.
The second is innovation and technology leadership. The report says Ireland's position in the innovation contest remains below average, although it improved slightly. This dimension includes research spending per worker and against value added, research jobs, top patents, digital research, venture capital, early phase clinical trial density and academic research.
| Dimension | Ireland's position |
|---|---|
| Overall index | 2nd of 40, score 123 |
| Market position and efficiency | "Dominates" the ranking; exact rank not printed in the text |
| Location quality | 2nd, up from 11th |
| Performance | 22nd, falling again |
| Innovation and technology leadership | Below average, slightly improved; exact rank not disclosed |
The report does not publish Ireland's scores on individual indicators, such as patents or trial density. We therefore cannot say which of them hold Ireland back. Last year's report was more specific about the cause of the Performance drop. It said Ireland depends heavily on multinational profits, which had fallen from the high levels seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
How is the index calculated, and what are its limits?
BAK Economics uses 18 indicators grouped into four dimensions, each worth 25%. Every indicator is standardised so that the average is 100 and one standard deviation is 10. Four points about the method matter for reading Ireland's result.
- Productivity carries real weight. Productivity level makes up two thirds of the market position dimension, and is measured in nominal US dollars per worker for 2024. A country where multinational profits raise measured value added scores well here.
- The weights are Swiss. Pharma counts for 86% and chemicals for 14% in every country, because that is the split in Switzerland in 2024. The headline figure is therefore a combined score, not a pure pharma ranking. The report's text does not state Ireland's pharma only rank.
- The method changed this year. New sub-indicators were added, including venture capital, early phase trial density and Phase III conversion, and two health system measures were removed. The report does not say how far this affected Ireland, so the move from 11th to 2nd should be read with care.
- The economic data stops at 2024. The growth measures run from 2019 to 2024. The index therefore does not capture Ireland's 2025 export surge or the recent US tariff and pricing measures that its introduction describes.
The authors tested the weighting. Using equal weights gave a 99% correlation with the published version, though they note that individual countries' ranks did shift. The index was commissioned by the Swiss industry association scienceindustries, and BAK Economics describes itself as an independent institute. The report does not describe itself as peer reviewed.
How do the Swiss authors see the Irish model?
Michael Grass, a member of the BAK Economics executive board and author of the study, spoke to allnews.ch in an interview published on 6 November 2026. He said that Ireland, in his view, is not the model for Switzerland to follow in pharma. This is one economist's view on Swiss policy, not a verdict on Ireland in the index.
What does this mean for the Irish sector?
The score adds to a familiar picture of size and concentration. A Goodbody report published by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association in March 2026 estimated pharma exports at €139bn in 2025, which it put at 53% of goods exports and 41% of GNI*. It said around 75,000 people work in pharma manufacturing and related activities, 28,000 of them in manufacturing. Over 60% of exports went to the US.
Goodbody takes a different view on two points. It says Ireland's total R&D spending is above the EU average relative to national income, with business R&D among the highest in the EU. That is not a direct contradiction, since the index measures research inside the sector against a world peer group. Goodbody also says: "The main threat to Irish competitiveness is infrastructure", citing energy prices, grid capacity, water and waste treatment. Those local pressures sit alongside the US most favoured nation pricing risk we have covered, and the trade talks held in Dublin in October.
On clinical trials, the Irish trend has recently been upward. Our June report on Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association figures showed industry sponsored trial starts rising from 41 in 2023 to 73 in 2025. The index does not show how Ireland scores on trials.
This year's focus topic, artificial intelligence, offers no Irish finding. The authors say the analysis is qualitative because comparable industry data on AI does not exist, so they do not compare countries on it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Global Industry Competitiveness Index?
It is a yearly ranking of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry's competitiveness in 40 countries. BAK Economics, a Swiss research institute based in Basel, developed the index in 2020 and calculates it for scienceindustries.
Is Ireland really second in the world for pharma?
Ireland is second in this index, which combines pharma and chemicals using weights taken from Switzerland. It is one benchmark from one commissioned study, not an official world ranking.
What weaknesses does the report find in Ireland?
Performance, meaning growth in value added and productivity, has fallen to 22nd. Innovation and technology leadership remains below average. The report also says that high productivity is very strongly driven by the onshoring of multinational profits.
Which countries are moving up?
Malaysia rose from 32nd to 8th, Canada from 14th to 9th, and China from 16th to 12th.
Does the index take account of 2025 and 2026 events?
Mostly not. The core economic indicators use data up to 2024, so later tariff and pricing changes are not reflected in those figures.
Outlook
The next edition should show whether Ireland's location quality result holds under the revised method, and whether its Performance decline continues once 2025 data enters the series. For Irish policy makers, the more useful questions are how much of the sector's measured strength reflects activity on the ground, and how much reflects where profits are booked. Priya Life Science will update this report if BAK Economics publishes Ireland's indicator level results.
Sources
- BAK Economics for scienceindustries, Global Industry Competitiveness Index (GICI) 2026, full report in German, 4 November 2026
- BAK Economics for scienceindustries, GICI 2026 Executive Summary in English, 4 November 2026
- scienceindustries, Media release: Switzerland as a hub for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, 4 November 2026
- BAK Economics for scienceindustries, Global Industry Competitiveness Index (GICI) 2025, full report in German, November 2025
- scienceindustries, Study on the competitiveness of chemical-pharmaceutical industry 2024, 8 November 2024
- Goodbody Economic Research for the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, The Pharmaceutical Sector in Ireland: A Health Check on Strengths, Risks and Economic Impact, 4 March 2026
- allnews.ch, Pharma: l'Irlande n'est pas le modèle à suivre pour la Suisse, interview with Michael Grass by Yves Hulmann, 6 November 2026
Cover image: AI-generated illustration.
