Dr. Donal Donovan:

In one way, the treatment of pharmaceuticals is not overly complicated. Exported pharmaceuticals are treated as exports. Imports are divided into two categories, raw materials and payment of patents for licences, which appears under services. There are, therefore, exports of goods, imports of goods and considerable imports of services called patents. One of the problems that arise is in the valuation, measurement and time period of the patents. If patents disappear over the cliff, presumably the exports will disappear but the imports will also disappear. In theory, the entire circuit would just stop if an industry ceased operations.