Big pharma fears best-selling drugs in crosshairs of US-EU tariff spat

STORY: Drugmakers are urging the Trump administration and EU officials to exclude medical goods from expanding tariff wars.

They want to avert price spikes on top-selling medicines made in Europe from Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy for weight loss to Merck’s cancer immunotherapy Keytruda.

That’s according to more than half a dozen pharma industry sources.

In conversations with U.S. officials, the pharmaceutical industry has reportedly argued that tariffs on the EU would increase drug costs.

And would also endanger priorities outlined in Trump’s health-related executive orders on drug pricing and increasing life expectancy of Americans.

Sources says some firms are signalling a willingness to expand manufacturing in the U.S.

While pressing for tax breaks and regulatory changes.

Industry executives are also pressing their case with officials in Brussels.

Several sources have said they want the EU hold off on any retaliatory tariffs.

Pharmaceutical products have long been spared from trade wars due to the potential harms.

But Trump’s move to increase tariffs on goods from China, including finished drugs and raw ingredients, has raised expectations that medicines will join the list.

The U.S. depends on medicines partly produced in Europe that bring in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.

Novo Nordisk partially makes some of the active pharmaceutical ingredient for obesity injection Wegovy in Denmark.

Merck’s Keytruda and AbbVie’s wrinkle treatment Botox are made in Ireland.