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 Pictures
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 fee, like 200%,” Trump stated throughout a Cupboard assembly.
However he steered that these levies wouldn’t go into impact instantly, saying he’ll “give individuals a couple of 12 months, 12 months and a half.”
“We’ll give them a sure time frame to get their act collectively,” Trump stated, apparently referring to drugmakers.
Particulars on pharmaceutical tariffs “will come on the finish of the month,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick informed 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 resolve how he will do it,” Lutnick stated.
The president has repeatedly threatened after which modified course on tariff proposals, so there isn’t any assure he’ll set pharmaceutical tariffs on the 200% fee. Pharmaceutical shares have been largely unchanged following Trump’s feedback.
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 corporations, lots 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 strains and their capability to put money into analysis and improvement.
Trump has stated tariffs will incentivize drug corporations 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 couple of a long time.
