The Wall Street Journal

How Weight-Loss Drugs Blew Out the U.S. Trade Deficit

Shipments have propelled Ireland, a country of 5.4 million, to the second-largest goods-trade imbalance with the U.S., behind China

Workers at an Eli Lilly plant in Kinsale, Ireland.
Workers at an Eli Lilly plant in Kinsale, Ireland. Photo: Paulo Nunes dos Santos/Bloomberg News

Planes have been jetting from Ireland to the U.S. this year carrying something more valuable than gold: $36 billion worth of hormones for popular obesity and diabetes drugs.

The frantic airlift of those ingredients—more than double what was imported from Ireland for all of last year—reflects the collision of two powerful forces: tariff-driven stockpiling and weight-loss drug demand.

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War Brings Out the Best in the DollarExternal link

War Brings Out the Best in the Dollar