President Donald Trump has doubled down on his plan to assess tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products, saying they will eventually reach 250%.
“We’ll be putting initially a small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year—one and a half years maximum—it’s going to go to 150% and then it’s going to go to 250%,” Trump said during a phone interview on CNBC. “We want pharmaceuticals made in our country.”
Trump added that the new drug tariff rate would be announced “within the next week or so,” along with a new levy on semiconductor imports.
The new figure comes four weeks after Trump, in a Cabinet meeting, discussed his plan to phase in a 200% levy on drugs that are made overseas. Trump first floated the 200% tariff idea in March during a meeting with Ireland's leader Micheál Martin.
The Trump administration has already imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as on cars and auto parts.
Last week, the Trump administration announced a deal with the EU that would place a 15% levy on pharmaceutical products from countries in the bloc. That tariff, which would not include some generic drugs, would be separate from the sector-specific levies the administration wants to enact.
The tariff initiatives are designed to encourage drugmakers to manufacture their products in the U.S. Looking to get out ahead of the threat, drugmakers including AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Novartis have announced significant U.S. investment plans for the coming years.
Meanwhile, in May, Trump signed an executive order to revive a most favored nation (MFN) policy, which aims to reduce prices paid in the U.S. to match lower prices overseas. That policy has yet to be fully explained or enacted.
Last week, Trump sent letters to 17 of the world’s largest drugmakers outlining steps they “must take” to moderate the costs of their U.S. medicines in line with the MFN reference prices.