Ed Silverman , 2025-04-18 11:53:00
For weeks, President Trump has made it clear that tariffs are going to be slapped on pharmaceuticals. But that is about the only thing that is clear.
For the moment, his administration has opened a formal investigation that would determine the extent to which importing these products represents a national security risk — and then decide the scope of the tariffs and how they will be applied. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry, investors, and consumers are left wondering what to expect — and how much more the tariffs may cost them.
There are various possibilities to unpack, such as the origins of active pharmaceutical ingredients and the types of medicines more likely to rise in price than others. There are also the maneuvers drug companies can make — from pricing strategies to moving production around — in order to mitigate the impact and there is the extent to which some drugs, namely generics, may remain available.
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