Dr. Donal Donovan:

This is my understanding. Nobody took much notice of contract manufacturing because on a net basis it represented a figure of approximately zero. Nobody focused on it, but for reasons to which I will come, it jumped dramatically and suddenly people were asking what was the reason for this huge additional activity. It is not a methodological change, it is that the reality that the level of contract manufacturing, for reasons we do not know, has increased. I think it is fair to say that not too many people know why there has been a sudden explosion in the level of this activity. We understand it may include a very small number of firms and could have something to do with taxation arrangements - a very complex issue - which are changing all the time and people move operations in different ways. That is certainly one hypothesis, but we do not have a sense that the Department of Finance has a very clear handle on it. The problem then is that if we not know what caused this to happen, we do not have a basis for knowing whether it will continue, whether it is a one-off or whether there may be offsetting expenditures in royalties. It is hard to say.