Several large pharmaceutical companies have already announced multibillion-dollar investments for new facilities in the United States.
The United States will institute tariffs on pharmaceutical imports “probably at the end of the month,” President Donald Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on July 15.
“We’re going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build. And then, we’re going to make it a very high tariff,” Trump said. “Look, there’s two ways you do it. You make money and/or you have them move here so they don’t have to pay the tariff. Those are the two ways. The pharmaceutical companies are moving back to America where they should be.”
On July 8, Trump told a Cabinet meeting that while pharma tariffs will be unveiled soon, the duties would not take effect immediately.
“We’re going to give people about a year, a year and a half, to come in, and after that, they’re going to be tariffed,” he said. “If they have to bring pharmaceuticals into the country, the drugs and other things into the country, they’re going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200 percent.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had said that the pharma tariffs would be separate from the reciprocal tariff policy of the Trump administration, according to an April 13 interview with ABC News.
Billions of dollars of investments have already been announced by various pharma giants amid the administration’s tariff proposal for pharma imports and its push to boost domestic drug manufacturing.
On Feb. 26, Eli Lilly and Company announced a roughly $27 billion plan to build four new pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the United States.
On March 21, Johnson & Johnson committed to investing more than $55 billion in the United States over a four-year period. The plan includes manufacturing, technology, and research and development.
In April, Swiss pharma company Novartis said it would invest $23 billion over five years, Switzerland-based Roche announced a $50 billion investment, and Merck announced $1 billion to build a facility in Delaware.
