The president of the United States, Donald Trump, speaks, the day he signs executive orders related to energy in the White House in Washington, DC, USA, April 8, 2025.
Leah Millis | Reuters
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President Donald Trump doubled the plans to impose “important” tariffs on pharmaceutical products imported to the United States.
It occurs after drug manufacturers gave a temporary sigh of relief last week, when Trump exempted the sector of his great round of the so -called reciprocal tariffs.
“We are going to announce very soon a great rate on pharmaceutical products,” he said Tuesday at a dinner from the National Committee of the Republican Congress, according to several media. “And when they listen to that, they will leave China. They will leave other places because they have to sell, most of their product is sold here and will open their plants everywhere.”
The manufacture of drugs in the United States has been significantly reduced in recent decades. The production of most of the so -called active ingredients in drugs has moved to China and other countries, largely due to the lowest costs for labor and other parts of the process, according to food and medicines administration.
It is not clear how those rates will look. But Trump said on board Air Force One last week that the “pharmaceutical” tariffs would reach a level that you have not really seen before, “according to several reports.
The pharmaceutical industry is already going back, only weeks after some companies announced American manufacturing investments to build good will with Trump.
Archive Photo: David Ricks, President and Executive Director of Eli Lilly & Co., arrives for an audience of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the Senate in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.
To the drago | Bloomberg | Getty images
Eli Lilly CEO, David Ricks, warned of Trump's decision to impose broad tariffs could ultimately damage the research and development of drugs.
“We cannot violate those agreements, so we have to eat the cost of the rates and make compensation within our own companies,” Ricks told BBC in an interview. “In general, that will be in the reduction of personnel or research and development, and I predict that R&D will be the first. That is a disappointing result.”
Eli Lilly has led the industry in the construction of its US production capabilities, marking $ 50 billion to build and improve new plants since 2020. These facilities are key to manufacturing the great weight loss of the company and diabetes medications.
But Eli Lilly also depends mainly on foreign manufacturing, especially in Ireland, where he uses more than 3,000 people and is building a new installation of $ 800 million.
Specific pharmaceutical rates would probably increase the prices of American medicines for patients, because even if companies move to produce those medicines nationwide, they would take years and cost more than producing medications abroad, said Lession of Readink Partners David Risinger in a note last month.
Predict the potential impact of rates on pharmaceutical companies is difficult since they have vast and complex manufacturing networks with multiple steps, sometimes in different countries, said TD analyst Cowen Steve Scala in a note last week.
But Scala said Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers Squibb and Abbvie seem better positioned than others for tariff climate because they have more important manufacturing plants in the United States than internationally.
Most of its sites responsible for producing active drug ingredients are also in the United States, he added.
Meanwhile, Novartis and Roche “seem more at risk” because they have few US plants and a greater proportion of active ingredient sites that are international, said Scala.
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The latest in Medical Care Technology: the new companies in the initial stage dominated the digital health financing agreements in the first quarter, according to the report, says the report.
While January may seem 10 years ago (at least it does this tired reporter), we are only a quarter in 2025. This is what happened with digital health funds during the period, according to a new Health Rock report.
In the first quarter, $ 3 billion were invested in digital health in 122 agreements, said Rock Health. The financing increased slightly, but the count of agreements decreased, compared to the $ 2.7 billion invested in 133 agreements during the same period last year.
The sector obtained $ 1.8 billion in funds in 118 agreements in the fourth quarter of last year.
The small new companies on an early stage dominated the space in the first quarter of 2025, since the rounds of seeds, series A and Series B represented 83% of the offers labeled, said Rock Health.
The firm calls rounds without a public title (such as series A, for example) “Rondas not labeled.” Startups often pose not labeled rounds to avoid making valuation cuts and pushing challenging markets, although they will often not avoid those difficult conversations forever.
Only five companies raised rounds of the D series or later in the first quarter, and three of those rounds exceeded $ 100 million. The Innovaccer Medical Care Data Company announced an increase of $ 275 million in January, the qventus automation company announced a $ 105 million round in January and AI Scribing Company Abridge announced an increase of $ 250 million in February.
These agreements helped carry the medium size of the stage round after $ 105 million, almost double the average round size of $ 55 million for this 2024 cohort.
While the first quarter of the year was free of the important interruptions in the financing of the digital health company, the second quarter could bring more challenges.
Public markets have been seen after President Donald Trump announced an aggressive and high -range tariff policy last week, immersing the United States, and its commercial partners, in an uncertain territory. Last week, the Nasdaq compound registered its worst week since the beginning of the Covid pandemic and entered a bearish market.
Tariffs entered into force on Wednesday, although investors do not yet have total clarity: Trump has indicated that he could negotiate with commercial partners to potentially reduce their fees. The global commercial conflict is changing for the moment, which could make some risk investors doubt large controls in the short term.
CNBC is covering the last developments, and you can follow our live coverage here.
Do not hesitate to send any advice, suggestion, stories ideas and data to Ashley at [email protected].
