Trump says pharmaceutical tariffs could reach 250% in future
President Donald Trump provided new details about his plan to impose tariffs on foreign-made pharmaceuticals, but the White House says nothing is final.
President Donald Trump provided new details about his plan to impose tariffs on foreign-made pharmaceuticals, but the White House says nothing is final.
President Donald Trump provided new details about his plan to impose tariffs on foreign-made pharmaceuticals, but the White House says nothing is final.
President Donald Trump provided new details on Tuesday about his plan to impose steep tariffs on foreign-made pharmaceuticals, with import taxes potentially reaching 250% over time.
It's the highest tariff rate that Trump has teased to date on imported drugs. The White House still hasn't detailed an implementation timeline or possible exemptions.
Trump told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday that pharmaceutical tariffs will roll out in phases.
"We will be putting an initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year, one and a half years maximum, it is going to go to 150% and then it is going to go to 250% because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country," Trump said.
White House Spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement following those remarks that "nothing should be deemed final" until the president makes an official announcement.
“President Trump is committed to safeguarding our national and economic security, and that includes ensuring that Americans are never again left in the lurch as they were during the COVID era when shortages of imported drugs and other lifesaving medical equipment put lives at risk," Desai said.
PhRMA, a trade group representing major drug manufacturers, said companies have recently announced hundreds of billions of dollars in new U.S. investment and argued that tariffs are counterproductive to that "shared goal."
"Every dollar spent on tariffs is a dollar that could be used to advance American manufacturing or to develop innovative treatments and cures," said PhRMA spokesperson Alex Schriver. "Further, tariffs on medicines can increase costs and lead to shortages."
Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, agrees.
"Tariffs are taxes on patients," Kesselheim said.
Kesselheim expects tariffs will raise prices, especially for generic drugs produced in countries like India and China.
Another major player is the European Union, where pharmaceuticals will face 15% tariffs under a newly announced preliminary trade agreement with the Trump administration. It could potentially impact products like Botox, the cancer medication Keytruda, and the weight loss drug Ozempic.
"There already is a substantial profit margin built into brand-name medications that's far higher than the cost of production. So I don't think that there will be as direct an impact on drug prices as it would be for generic drugs, but I do think that ultimately, pharmaceutical companies will transmit those tariff costs to patients," Kesselheim said.
The White House didn't directly address concerns about possible price increases and drug shortages in response to an emailed question on Tuesday.
The debate comes as the president pursues another strategy to lower prescription drug prices by tying what the U.S. government pays for medications to the lower prices paid by other developed nations.
On Thursday, the Trump administration sent letters to 17 leading pharmaceutical manufacturers outlining steps they must take to reduce prescription drug prices. The letters warned that, if companies do not comply, the federal government "will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices."
Kesselheim said it's not clear whether this plan will succeed, partly because enforcement details are unclear.
