The main Irish unit of pharmaceutical giant Gilead has paid out dividends totalling $3.05 billion (€2.77 billion) over the past two years.
New accounts show that Cork-based Gilead Sciences Ireland UC (GSIUC) last year paid out of a dividend of $1.65 billion to its immediate parent company Gilead Biopharmaceutics US LLC.
This followed a dividend payout of $1.4 billion by GSIUC in 2021.
The new accounts also disclose that GSIUC's corporation tax bill for 2021 of $131.1 million arises from a 2021 corporation tax charge of $58.46 million and an additional $129.09 million “corporation tax adjustment to prior periods”.
A note concerning the $129.09 million adjustment states that “the company has been engaging collaboratively with tax authorities in relation to certain issues that are complex and may take time to resolve”.
The note states that the $129.09 million "includes amounts in relation to these matters".
Deferred tax of $56.45 million reduced the corporation tax bill to $131.1 million.
The accounts show that 2021 was a bumper year for the expansion of the business as GSUIC’s revenues surged by 30 per cent or $1.68 billion to $7.28 billion.
The directors said this was primarily due to sales of Veklury, Gilead’s treatment for hospitalised patients with Covid-19.
The drug first came to wide public notice when it was one of Covid-19 medications administered to Donald Trump when he was US president and contracted Covid-19.
Globally, Gilead’s sales of Veklury in 2021 totalled $5.56 billion – a 98 per cent increase on the 2020 total of $2.8 billion as it became commercially available in the third quarter of 2020.
Gilead mainly produces drugs to combat HIV and Hepatitis C. In 2021, GSIUC returned to an operating profit of $160.29 million and following an operating loss of €184.4 million in 2020.
However, the business – based at the IDA Business and Technology Park at Carigtohill – recorded a pre-tax loss of $575.1 million and this was due to a $716.89 million impairment in financial assets.
The pre-tax loss of $575.1 million was 69 per cent down on the pre-tax loss of $1.8 billion in 2020.
The firm recorded a post-tax loss of $706.2 million in 2021 after incurring the corporation tax charge of $131.1 million.
The 2021 loss also takes account of hefty non-cash amortisation charges of $1.549 billion.
In 2021, Gilead Science Ireland Unlimited announced a €7 million expansion to its Irish operations with the creation of an additional 140 jobs here.
At the time of the announcement, Gilead already employed 370 jobs and had invested €225 million here.
