16-05-2025
Pharma — big and small — braces for Trump tariffs
Pharmacies and drug manufacturers across the country are stockpiling drugs and other supplies in expectation of more tariffs from the Trump administration.
State of play: Jolley's in Salt Lake City is one of the smaller, independent pharmacies trying to preempt price hikes, NPR reported this week.
The big picture: Trump's announcement of 10% global tariffs on April 2 already had big implications for drug costs like packaging and raw materials, which had been duty-free.
Now the industry is waiting to learn whether he makes good on his promise to impose "major" tariffs on imported medicine.
Case in point: SLC pharmacist Benjamin Jolley bought six months' worth of empty bottles in the most expensive sizes, hoping to get ahead of higher packaging costs.
If Trump defects from the 1995 agreement under which most countries buy and sell medicines without tariffs, the drugs themselves will also get more expensive, Jolley said.
What they're saying:"I understand the rationale for tariffs. I'm not sure that we're gonna do it the right way," Jolley told NPR. "And I am definitely sure that it's going to raise the price that I pay my suppliers."
Zoom out: Pharmaceutical imports from Europe have soared this spring as U.S. pharmacies and manufacturers anticipate supply chain disruptions and drug shortages.
Imports from Ireland, a manufacturing hub for pharma giants like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, not only hit a record in March, but were double the previous high, Axios' Tina Reed reports.
Imports from Denmark — home of Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy as well as much of the U.S. insulin supply — swelled to $1.2 billion in March, up from $810 million a year ago. That's also up from $825 million in February.
The latest: Trump issued an executive order this week threatening "aggressive additional action" against drug companies that keep selling drugs to U.S. patients at higher prices than are paid in other countries.
