Trump plans a huge tax on imported drugs, risk of prices and higher deficiency

But it has not ended yet.

Trump promised to impose huge import taxes on medicines, a group of products that he has not spared largely in his commercial war. For decades, in fact, imported medicine has been often allowed to enter the United States free from customs duties.

This change started. American and Uropolitan leaders recently detailed Commercial deal This includes a 15 % tariff rate on some European goods brought to the United States, including medications. Trump threatens 200 % duties on drugs that were exposed elsewhere.

“Shock and awe” is how Maytee Pereira is describing the PWC tax and consulting company. Trump plans for drug makers. “This is an industry that is transmitted from scratch (definitions) to the possibility of 200 %.” “

Trump promised the Americans will Reducing their drug costs. However, the imposition of a harsh pharmaceutical tariff risk the opposite and may lead to the disruption of complex supply chains, and the inaugurated general medications from the American market and create a shortage.

“The customs tariff would harm consumers more than anything, because they will feel inflationary effect … directly when paying against medical prescriptions in the pharmacy and indirect The largest.

This threat comes at a time when Trump presses drug makers to reduce prices in the United States. I have recently sent messages to many companies asking them to develop a plan to start providing the so -called country prices most preferred here.

But Trump said that he would delay definitions for a year or a year and a half, giving companies an opportunity to store medicine and transfer manufacturing to the United States – which some have already begun.

David Reesgeger, the Leerink Partners analyst on July 29, said that most of the drug makers have already increased the imports of drug products and may carry between six and 18 months of stock in the United States.

David Windley, a Jeffrez analyst, said in a recent research note that the customs tariff that does not start until the back of 2026 may not be felt until 2027 or 2028 due to storage.

Moreover, many analysts suspect that Trump will settle on a much lower tariff. They are also waiting to know if any tariff policy includes exemption for some products such as low -marginal general drugs.

However, Stadig says, even a 25 % tax that gradually raises the prices of American drugs by 10 % to 14 % with decreased stocks.

In recent decades, drug makers have transferred many operations abroad – to take advantage of the low costs in China, India and tax exemptions in Ireland and Switzerland. As a result, the American trade deficit in medical and pharmaceutical products is large – nearly $ 150 billion last year.

The Covid-19 experience confirmed when the countries were desperate to cling to their own roles and medical supplies-with the dangers of relying on foreign countries in a crisis, especially when the main resource is their geopolitical rival in America.

In April The investigation started How to import medicines and pharmaceutical components affect national security. Article 232 of the 1962 commercial expansion law allows the president to order definitions for national security.

There is a role in the definitions in securing American medical supplies. She referred to the Biden administration, Successfully imposing taxes on foreign syringes When cheap Chinese imports threatened to get American producers out of work.

Trump has greater ideas: He wants to return pharmaceutical factories to the United States, noting that the drugs that made the United States will not face customs tariffs.

Pharmaceutical makers are already investing in the United States.

Swiss drug maker Roche said in April that he It will invest 50 billion dollars In expanding its American operations. Will Johnson and Johnson Spending 55 billion dollars in the United States In the next four years. The CEO of Joaquin Duato recently said that the company aims to completely provide medicines for the US market from the locations there.

But building a pharmaceutical factory in the United States from scratch is costly and can take several years.

Building in the United States will not necessarily protect a Tram’s tariff medicine maker, not if the taxes applied to the imported ingredients used in medicine. Jacob Jensen, a commercial policy analyst at the American Labor Forum full of oath, notes that “97 % of antibiotics, 92 % of antivirals and 83 % of the most popular general drugs contain at least one active component are manufactured abroad.”

“The only way to protect yourself from definitions is to build a supply chain from the end of the United States,” Pereira said.

The brand pharmaceutical companies enjoy fats that provide flexibility in investments and assimilate costs with the start of the Trump tariff. Public medicine manufacturing companies no.

Some may decide to leave the US market instead of paying customs duties. This can be sabotage: Geneina drugs represent 92 % of pharmaceutical recipes for retail and demand in the United States.

Production pause at a factory in India Two years ago It led to a lack of chemotherapy that disrupted cancer care. “These are not very flexible markets,” said Wosińska Brookings. “If there is a shock, it is difficult for them to recover.”

It argues that the definitions alone are unlikely that public medicine manufacturing companies to build our factories: They may need government financing.

“In an ideal world, we will make everything that is only important in the United States, but this costs a lot of money … We have designed a lot of our supply chains because we want to have inexpensive drugs. If we want to the opposite of this, we will really have to redesign our system … how ready we are to spend?”

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Murphy mentioned Indianapolis. AP Health Matthew Perrone’s writer contributed to this report.