Threat of Trump's pharma tariffs looms again

The US federal government is said to be preparing to announce tariffs of up to 100% on some pharmaceutical imports, focusing on companies that have not signed pricing deals with the Trump administration.

A Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, is predicting an announcement on the levy – first threatened last year – could be made as early as today and will involve manufacturers that have not started transferring production of medicines intended for the US market to facilities located there.

Many of the biggest pharma groups have reached deals with the White House, pledging billions of dollars in US investments and Most Favoured Nation (MFN) pricing for medicines in return for an amnesty for the tariffs.

Not all have done so, however, and the impact of the tariffs – if the report proves to be accurate – could be particularly serious for smaller companies without the financial muscle to build plants in the US in short order.

It is understood that the new tariffs would apply to patented medicines, so would exclude low-cost generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients on which US health systems are still heavily reliant.

Further complicating the picture are the myriad trade agreements between the US and other countries – including the UK and EU– which have set separate rates for pharma imports into the US.

It has been reported that tariffs agreed with trading partner countries will be honoured, although it remains possible that both the timeline and terms of the tariffs could change. There has been speculation that some specific medicines and disease categories could be exempted.

The announcement – if it is forthcoming – would come despite a ruling in February by the US Supreme Court that tariffs imposed under emergency powers were illegal. That did not, however, extend to industrial categories like pharma that were the subject of so-called 'Section 232' investigations, which have a higher level of due diligence.

Trump started the Section 232 probe into pharma in the spring of 2025, using it as a lever for trade negotiations and MFN deals with pharma companies, and it remains active. Pharma was exempted from the initial round of 'liberation day' tariffs imposed by Trump in April 2025.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash