Trump told guests at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner on Tuesday that the White House would announce a “major tariff” on pharmaceutical imports “very shortly,” to applause from the partisan crowd.

“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re a big market.

“Something that sells for $88 in London sells for $1,300 here, made in the same factory by the same company,” he added. 

Trump predicted that once those tariffs take effect, pharmaceutical groups would quickly leave their manufacturing bases outside the U.S. and build plants in the States.

The U.S. president got a helping hand in getting that message across to one of his main nemeses, the EU, from the bloc’s own pharmaceutical companies.

Europe’s drugmakers confront EU

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the lobby group representing Europe’s biggest drugmakers, went to the European Commission (EC) yesterday to hold crunch talks with von der Leyen, calling for radical change and hanging the threat of an exodus to the U.S. over the EC president’s head. 

“Today, CEOs of the research-based pharmaceutical industry issued a stark warning to President von der Leyen that unless Europe delivers rapid, radical policy change then pharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing is increasingly likely to be directed towards the U.S.,” the EFPIA, whose president is Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, said in a statement.

Representatives from Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Sanofi, and Bayer were all in attendance at the talks.

The lobby group said that €103.2 billion ($113.8 billion) of capital and R&D investment plans were at risk of not being fulfilled in Europe as uncertainty mounts: “The U.S. now leads Europe on every investor metric from availability of capital, intellectual property, speed of approval to rewards for innovation. 

“In addition to the uncertainty created by the threat of tariffs, there is little incentive to invest in the EU and significant drivers to relocate to the U.S.”

The EU shipped €92 billion ($100 billion) worth of medicinal and pharmaceutical products to the U.S. in 2023, according to Eurostat data. Major U.S. pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, manufacture many of their drugs in Europe before exporting them back to the U.S. Trump wants to repatriate those businesses’ manufacturing while enticing foreign producers to U.S. shores.

The EFPIA said the EU needed to make progress on competitiveness and strengthening intellectual property provisions, in addition to creating a world-leading regulatory framework.

“Participants emphasized the strategic value of this sector to the EU. They raised strong concerns about the broad ramifications of U.S. tariffs, which would hurt both sides of the Atlantic, with implications for globally interconnected supply chains and availability of medicines for European and U.S. patients alike,” a statement from the commission read.

Shares in Europe’s largest drugmakers plunged in early morning trading as investors digested Trump’s Tuesday remarks.

Novartis shares declined 6.5% by 11 a.m. Central European Time, while Sanofi shares fell more than 5%. 

Novo Nordisk shares had declined by about 4%. The Danish drugmaker’s value has now fallen back to where it was in late 2022.