Trump Delays Pharmaceutical Tariffs

By Fran Kritz

Using the social media platform Truth Social,President Trump announced last week that branded or patented drugs could see a tariff rate of 100% beginning Oct. 1, “unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America. ‘IS BUILDING’ will be defined as, ‘breaking ground’ and/or ‘under construction,'” according too the post.

However, on Oct. 1, STAT News reported that the tariffs are on hold. (As of the government shutdown that began earlier in the day, the White House did not immediately respond to queries from Pharmacy Practice News about the tariffs.) According to STAT, a White House spokesperson told the publication that the tariffs have not gone into effect but that the administration planned to eventually place tariffs on companies that don’t build manufacturing capacity in the United States or have a price agreement for lower U.S. drug costs for the pharmaceuticals they sell.

Companies that have recently begun building manufacturing capacity in the United States include AbbVie, Genentech, and Johnson & Johnson, according to reporting by IndustrySelect. Labor and other costs are much less expensive outside the United States, which is why so many drug companies make their products abroad, said David Blumenthal, MD, a professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston.

New efforts to lower prices, as demanded by the White house in a July 31 executive order, have also been announced. Earlier this week PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) announced a new website that will launch in January 2026 to sell drugs from several companies directly to consumers. And Mr. Trump announced this week that Pfizer