In a fundamental fundament for funds on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said he plans to announce tariffs on pharmaceutical products soon.
“We are going to tall our pharmaceutical products, and once we do it, they are running back to our country, because we are the big market,” Trump said at the dinner of the National Committee of the Republican Congress in Washington, DC
“And when they listen to that, they will leave China, they will leave other places, because … most of their product is sold here, and they will open their plants all over our country, we will announce that,” he continued.
Although Trump recently implemented a 90 -day pause in some tariffs, he said Wednesday that the pharmaceutical rate is still taken seriously to boost US drug manufacturing. “We are going to put tariffs on pharmaceutical companies, and everyone will want to return,” Trump said, speaking from the Oval office.
The raw ingredients of almost all medications are performed abroad, even for the medications that are manufactured in the USA.
Pharmacy and Economics experts said such tariffs could also lead to drug scarcity and could even stop research and development.
President Donald Trump attends the dinner of the National Committee of the Republican Congress in Washington, on April 8, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Aggregate costs
Experts say that any additional cost would be transmitted to the consumer.
Ernie Tedeschi, director of Economics in Yale’s budget laboratory, a non -partisan policy research center, told ABC News that the average home spent an average of $ 4,200 on medications prescribed in 2024. That figure includes a combination of pocket costs and expenses covered by insurance.
Tedeschi said that an evaluation of the budget laboratory found that a 25% rate, for example, would raise pharmaceutical prices by 15% on average.
“According to our evaluation … the costs of prescription drugs would increase by an average of around $ 600 per year per household in the United States,” he said. “Now, not all that would necessarily be out of your pocket for the average family … but if a family is not paying those complete $ 600, your insurance company is paying the other part of it.”
He continued: “So, even if families do not see a price increase for which they are responsible, they can end up paying higher insurance premiums [and] The highest co -payment as a result of this. “
Drug scarcity
Tariffs could also affect generic drug manufacturers operating on thin margins, according to Dr. Erin Fox, associated pharmacy director of the Utah Health University, which tracks drug scarcity.
Specifically, Fox told ABC News that she is worried about drugs that are often scarcity, including injectable medications. This includes drugs such as lidocaine, which is used to numb the pain.
She said that the medications that people take every day, usually in the form of a pill, are less likely not to be so affected in the short term because there are many suppliers of those products.
“An injectable product could only have two or three [suppliers] Max, “he said.
A bottle of medications prescribed in a file photo without date is seen.
File Photo/Getty Images
Fox said that most generic companies have supply of six to 12 months of their active pharmaceutical ingredients available, and some companies may have bought some additional products in advance of these rates.
“This will not be an immediate effect, necessarily, that we are going to see, but when it is time to buy that next batch of raw materials, will it have a high rate, and the company can afford to do so?” Fox said.
Less research and development
Dr. William Padula, assistant professor of health and economy policy at the University of Southern California and scholar of the Institute of the USC Schaeffer, said he does not believe that the rates have a great impact on consumers, but that they could affect the areas of research and development of pharmaceutical companies.
He explained that pharmaceutical companies not only produce drugs, but also other tools, including vaccines, biomedical products and even free sales products, such as bandages.
Padula added that these companies use their profits in different ways, including investment in research and development.
“If they have less research and development money because fewer people buy drugs that have a higher price as a result of tariffs, then, in the long term, they will have to withdraw investments in research and development that could lead to less innovations,” he told ABC News.
“As a result, we [could] It ends in a situation where there are not so many new and new treatments for patients with different diseases, “he added.
Sony Salzman of ABC News contributed to this report.
