Trump says major pharmaceutical tariffs coming soon

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President Donald Trump doubled down on plans to soon impose “major” tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S. 

It comes after drugmakers breathed a short lived sigh of relief last week, when Trump exempted the sector from his big round of so-called reciprocal tariffs. 

“We’ll be announcing very shortly a significant tariff on pharmaceuticals,” he said on Tuesday at a dinner of the National Republican Congressional Committee, in accordance with several news outlets. “And once they hear that, they’ll leave China. They’ll leave other places because they must sell — most of their product is sold here and they are going to be opening up their plants in all places.”

Drug manufacturing within the U.S. has shrunk significantly in recent many years. Production of a lot of the so-called energetic ingredients in medicines have moved to China and other countries, largely on account of lower costs for labor and other parts of the method, in accordance with the Food and Drug Administration.

It’s unclear what those tariffs will seem like. But Trump said on board Air Force One last week that “pharma” tariffs would arrive “at a level that you simply have not really seen before,” in accordance with several reports. 

Already, the pharmaceutical industry is pushing back, just weeks after some firms announced sweeping U.S. manufacturing investments to construct goodwill with Trump. 

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks warned on Friday that Trump’s decision to impose broad tariffs could ultimately hurt drug research and development. 

“We will not breach those agreements, so we’ve got to eat the associated fee of the tariffs and make trade-offs inside our own firms,” Ricks told BBC in an interview. “Typically, that will likely be in reduction of staff or research and development, and I predict R&D will come first. That is a disappointing end result.”

Eli Lilly has led the industry in build up its U.S. production capabilities, earmarking $50 billion to construct and upgrade recent plants since 2020. Those facilities are key to manufacturing the corporate’s blockbuster weight reduction and diabetes drugs. 

But Eli Lilly also depends mainly on foreign manufacturing, most notably in Ireland, where it employs greater than 3,000 people and is constructing a brand new $800 million facility. 

Pharmaceutical-specific tariffs would likely drive up U.S. drug prices for patients, because even when firms moved to supply those medications domestically, it might take years and value greater than producing medicines abroad, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said in a note last month.  

Predicting the potential impact of tariffs on pharmaceutical firms is difficult since they’ve vast and sophisticated manufacturing networks with multiple steps, sometimes in numerous countries, TD Cowen analyst Steve Scala said in a note last week. 

But Scala said Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb and AbbVie appear higher positioned than others to weather tariffs because they’ve more major manufacturing plants within the U.S. than internationally.

Nearly all of their sites accountable for producing the energetic ingredients in drugs are also within the U.S., he added. 

Meanwhile, Novartis and Roche “look more in danger” because they’ve few U.S. plants and the next share of energetic ingredient sites which can be international, Scala said.

Be at liberty to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

While January might feel like 10 years ago (no less than it does to this drained reporter), we’re just one quarter into 2025. Here’s what happened with digital health funding in the course of the period, in accordance with a brand new report from Rock Health. 

In the primary quarter, $3 billion was invested in digital health across 122 deals, Rock Health said. Funding rose barely, but deal count decreased, in comparison with the $2.7 billion invested across 133 deals in the course of the same period last yr. 

The sector nabbed $1.8 billion in funding across 118 deals within the fourth quarter of last yr.

Small, early-stage startups dominated the space in the primary quarter of 2025, as Seed, Series A and Series B rounds made up 83% of labeled deals, Rock Health said. 

The firm calls rounds and not using a public title (like Series A, for example) “unlabeled rounds.” Startups will often raise unlabeled rounds to avoid taking valuation haircuts and push through difficult markets, though they often don’t stave off those tough conversations endlessly. 

Only five firms raised labeled Series D rounds or later in the primary quarter, and three of those rounds were over $100 million. Health-care data company Innovaccer announced a $275 million raise in January, AI automation company Qventus announced a $105 million round in January and AI scribing company Abridge announced a $250 million raise in February. 

Those deals helped pull the median later-stage round size to $105 million, nearly double the $55 million median round size for this cohort from 2024. 

While the primary quarter of the yr was free from any major disruptions to digital health enterprise funding, the second quarter could bring more challenges.

Public markets have been roiling after President Donald Trump announced an aggressive, far-reaching “reciprocal” tariff policy last week, plunging the U.S. – and its trade partners – into uncertain territory. Last week, the Nasdaq Composite recorded its worst week for the reason that onset of the Covid pandemic and entered a bear market. 

The tariffs went into effect Wednesday, though investors should not have full clarity yet: Trump has signaled he could negotiate with trading partners about potentially lowering their rates. The worldwide trade conflict is changing by the minute, which could make some enterprise investors hesitant to chop big checks within the near term. 

CNBC is covering all the most recent developments, and you possibly can follow our live coverage here.

Be at liberty to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.