Trump announces pharmaceutical tariffs

Trump announces pharmaceutical tariffs

President Trump announced tariffs of 100% will apply to brand-name pharmaceuticals starting next week, unless a company is building a plant in the U.S.

The announcement: “Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America. ‘IS BUILDING’ will be defined as, ‘breaking ground’ and/or ‘under construction.’ ” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Why it matters: While most major pharmaceutical companies have started or announced construction in the U.S., small biotechs may lack the capacity to build their own manufacturing facilities.

EU and Japan tariffs lower: Pre-existing agreements mean a 15% cap on tariffs from the EU, which provides 70% of U.S. pharmaceutical imports, and Japan, will also have lower tariffs, a White House official told Bloomberg.

Details to come: A White House official said a formal proclamation will come this week, The New York Times said.

BIO’s view: “The immediacy of punitive, 100% tariffs on innovative medicines for any company without ‘shovels in the ground’ would devastate our nation’s small and mid-sized biotechnology companies,” said BIO President & CEO John F. Crowley in a statement. “Immediate tariffs in the biotechnology industry threaten America’s health, national security, economic stability, and place as the world’s leader in biotechnology. They would also devastate our industry and accelerate China’s path to biotech dominance – which we cannot see happen.”

Putting Americans First: U.S. values impact drug pricing

European governments set drug prices based on specific assumptions about their citizens and their economies. U.S. assumptions about health care are different, which is why European pricing systems won’t work in America.

How they’re different: Other countries generally have a lower willingness to pay for health gains than the United States does, explains the latest “Putting America First” installment in Bio.News.

Why it matters: The UK is a classic example of this unwillingness to invest in the health of its citizens; the country sets a “willingness to pay” threshold for new medicines of about $40,000. That number hasn’t changed in a quarter century and may help explain why the UK lags peers in cancer survivorship.

Another difference: Other countries often use metrics to restrict care that Americans have rejected as discriminatory—most notably the quality-adjusted life-year, or QALY, which tends to lessen the value attributed to interventions aimed at the elderly or those with disabilities.

BIO’s view: American issues deserve American solutions. There is a careful balance of innovation, pricing, and access in the United States. Rebalancing that system requires a deep look at the values and expectations of the American people, not the values and constraints of countries that are far more willing to allow patients to go without.

Read more in Bio.News. 

What Else to Read

NewYorkBIO CEO Jennifer Hawks Bland urges reauthorization of the SBIR/STTR federal seed funding programs in a Crains New York opinion piece. “SBIR/STTR awardees as a whole are responsible for 12% of all new FDA-approved drugs,” Bland writes, noting the programs’ effectiveness. “Federal dollars awarded through these programs can lead to over $20 in downstream economic activity,” she says. “Thankfully, the House just passed a bill to reauthorize the program. Now, it's up to the Senate to get the bill across the finish line by September 30—for the sake of our innovation economy and the patients who depend on continued progress.” Read more here.

BIO on the American Road next stop: Illinois. BIO President & CEO John F. Crowley will lead an Oct. 2 visit to Chicago, the next stop the “BIO on the American Road” tour, which aims to engage with local biotech stakeholders across the country. A report from BIO and the Council of State Bioscience Associations (CSBA) says Illinois’ bioscience sector employed 93,402 people across 4,926 business establishments in the state in 2023. This marks a 7.5% percent increase in employment since 2019. BIO’s Chicago visit will feature a tour of COUR Pharma, a Patient Advocate Roundtable Discussion, and a Listening Session. Watch Bio.News for coverage.

Children with rare diseases urge reauthorization of Pediatric Priority Review Voucher (PPRV) program in BIO video series. PPRV supports development of rare disease treatments, giving children with rare diseases the opportunity to dream big, but Congress needs to reauthorize the program, as this series explains. See videos from Charlotte, Jilani, and Maggie.

Amyloidosis: Why patient advocacy is indispensable. Amyloidosis is a group of protein folding disorders that can have serious health consequences. Treatments exist, and early diagnosis makes a huge difference, but a lack of awareness means diagnosis is often delayed for years. That’s where patient groups like the Amyloidosis Army come in: they fill critical gaps in the healthcare system, connect people to resources, and amplify the voices of those most often left behind. Read more on Bio.News.

AMR bacteria infection rate rises rapidly, report says. U.S. infection rates from NDM-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (NDM-CRE), a dangerous type of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria, rose 460% between 2019 and 2023, says a Sept. 23 CDC report. Based on a review of 29 states with good AMR data, the CDC found NDM-CRE infections increased from around 0.25 to about 1.35 per 100,000. “This sharp rise in NDM-CRE means we face a growing threat that limits our ability to treat some of the most serious bacterial infections,” said Danielle Rankin, a CDC epidemiologist.

Amgen announces $650 million expansion of U.S. manufacturing. Amgen on Sept. 26 announced expansion of its U.S. manufacturing with a $650 million investment to increase drug production at the company’s biologics facility in Juncos, Puerto Rico. The investment is expected to create nearly 750 jobs. "This expansion underscores Amgen’s commitment to U.S. biomanufacturing and to strengthening the resilience of our global supply chain," said Robert A. Bradway, CEO at Amgen, a BIO member. Amgen says it has invested $40 billion in U.S. manufacturing and R&D since the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Read more here.

Beltway Report

The Senate is relatively quiet, and the House is in recess. A government shutdown appears imminent, according to POLITICO and others.