US President Donald Trump throughout a cupboard assembly on the White Home in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose as much as 200% tariffs on prescription drugs imported into the U.S. “very quickly.”
“They will be tariffs at very excessive charge, like 200%,” Trump mentioned throughout a Cupboard assembly.
However he urged that these levies wouldn’t go into impact instantly, saying he’ll “give folks a couple of 12 months, 12 months and a half.”
“We’ll give them a sure time period to get their act collectively,” Trump mentioned, apparently referring to drugmakers bringing again manufacturing into the U.S.
Particulars on pharmaceutical tariffs “will come on the finish of the month,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick instructed CNBC after the Cupboard assembly.
“With prescription drugs and semiconductors, these research are being accomplished on the finish of the month, and so the president will then set his insurance policies then, and I will let him wait to determine how he’ll do it,” Lutnick mentioned.
The president has repeatedly threatened after which modified course on tariff proposals, so there is not any assure he’ll set pharmaceutical tariffs on the 200% charge. Pharmaceutical shares had been largely unchanged following Trump’s feedback.
In a word on Tuesday, Leerink Companions analyst David Risinger mentioned he believes the announcement is optimistic for the business “as a result of tariffs is not going to be carried out instantly…and it’s unclear if the administration will comply with by sooner or later.”
It’s Trump’s most vital touch upon pharmaceutical-specific tariffs since April, when his administration initiated a so-called Part 232 investigation on these merchandise. That authorized authority permits the Secretary of Commerce to analyze the impression of imports on nationwide safety.
These deliberate tariffs would deal a long-awaited blow to pharmaceutical firms, a lot of which have pushed again and warned that the levies may drive up prices, deter investments within the U.S. and disrupt the drug provide chain, placing sufferers in danger. The business is already navigating the fallout from Trump’s drug pricing insurance policies, which drugmakers argue threaten each their backside traces and their capability to put money into analysis and growth.
Trump has mentioned tariffs will incentivize drug firms to maneuver manufacturing operations to the U.S. Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and others are already placing extra money into the U.S. after home drug manufacturing has shrunk dramatically over the previous few many years.
PhRMA, the business’s largest lobbying group within the U.S., reiterated a earlier assertion that pushes again on pharmaceutical tariffs.
“Each greenback spent on tariffs is a greenback that can not be invested in American manufacturing or the event of future therapies and cures for sufferers,” Alex Schriver, senior vp of public affairs for PhRMA, mentioned within the assertion.
“The business shares President Trump’s objective of revitalizing American manufacturing and has just lately introduced tons of of billions of {dollars} in U.S. funding, however putting tariffs on medicines can be counterproductive to those efforts,” he continued. “Medicines have traditionally been exempt from tariffs as a result of they’ll improve prices and result in shortages.”
