Drugmakers beg Trump administration to rethink pharma tariffs

Drugmakers implored the US Department of Commerce to rethink its proposal to impose tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals.

Last month, the Trump administration launched an investigation into the national security risks associated with pharmaceutical imports, with tariffs looming as the administration’s remedy of choice. In public comments posted on the Federal Register on Wednesday, companies and trade groups urged Trump officials to focus their efforts on weaning the US off its reliance on cheap drugs from China and India and spare its allies in Europe and elsewhere.

Even Eli Lilly, which has touted its domestic investment after the tariffs were announced, said “tariffs will cause more harm than good.” It added that building a new facility costs billions of dollars and takes 5 to 10 years to become operational.

“Tariffs actually decrease the stability of the supply chain in the interim period,” Lilly wrote.

Amgen said the tariffs should focus on “national security risks posed by countries of concern and supply chain continuity while avoiding unintended harm to patients and the very domestic manufacturing capacity the Government seeks to enhance.”

Fujifilm (yes, the Japanese camera company) said the US government should target China and India and leave its allies like Japan and Europe out of it. “China’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sector exhibits regulatory shortcomings that prioritize quantity over quality,” wrote Fujifilm, which now actually makes more money selling pharmaceuticals than cameras. 

Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical giant that makes the blockbuster weight-loss drug Ozempic, also had a bone to pick with China. It wrote that most semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, comes from China. That is then used by compounding pharmacies to make knock-off versions of the drug.

“None of these shipments should have been allowed into the country for use in compounding,” Novo said.

Generics, which account for more than 90% of prescriptions filled in the US, are predominantly made in China and India. Low labor costs keep the medications cheap, and the high volume allows manufacturers to take low margins.

Adding tariffs could lead some manufacturers to stop producing certain medicines or classes of medicines for the US altogether, Teva Pharmaceuticals warned. “This in turn will cause drug shortages or disrupt patient access to the medicines they need,” the company wrote.

Pfizer, which produces injectable generics like chemotherapies and antibiotics, with inputs from China and India, said tariffs could be “possibly catastrophic” for that product line.

It isn’t just pharmaceutical companies that are worried. The National Retail Federation warned that higher drug costs could cause independent pharmacies, which are already under pressure, to shutter. Several dairy trade groups added that they source vitamins and antibiotics from China.

Then, of course, are those who take the medications that may go up in price. One commenter, Rachel Doerner, said she takes a medication for a chronic illness that’s manufactured in India and costs $100 a month with insurance.

“We are living on a strict budget and both of us are working to maintain our house and associated costs,” she wrote. “We CANNOT afford for my medication to be any more expensive than it already is.”