05-03-2025
Tariff trade war could raise medical costs — but not quite yet
(NewsNation) — A majority of medical experts foresee at least a 10% increase in drug prices as a result of President Donald Trump's tariff standoff, a new Black Book Market Research survey found.
A brewing trade war between the U.S., China, Canada and Mexico could increase the cost of medical supplies, intensify drug shortages and limit device makers' ability to import critical supplies.
The full scope of tariff impacts will take some time to completely take shape, and Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs founder and CEO William Soliman tells NewsNation that prices and future drug availability are difficult to predict.
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'A lot of the common drugs that Americans take — your cholesterol lowering drugs, your blood thinners, your antibiotics — a lot of these drugs, a lot of their active pharmaceutical ingredients, are made in China. They're made in Canada,' Soliman said.
'You are going to see, potentially, price issues in terms of price increases and maybe potentially shortages of those generic drugs in the U.S.,' he added.
About 90% of the drugs Americans consume are generic — of that percentage, a vast majority are at least partly manufactured overseas.
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That includes common drugs like antibiotic Z-Pak, anticoagulant Coumadin and cancer-fighting drugs.
But Soliman said patients shouldn't panic just yet. There's likely a 12- to 18-month stockpile for many drugs, he said, so there should be no immediate issue with supply chain shortages when it comes to generic medications.
Name-brand drugs, however, could see significant problems when it comes to availability in the future, Soliman said.
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