The Trump administration is preparing to impose new tariffs on branded drugs from pharmaceutical companies that have not struck landmark deals with the president to lower their U.S. drug prices, CNBC has learned.
Patented medications and their active ingredients would be hit with a 100% tariff, according to a draft of the document obtained by CNBC. But there are pathways for drugmakers to reduce or avoid the levies if they move their manufacturing to the U.S. or are negotiating deals with the administration.
The proposal is not final and it is unclear when the Trump administration may announce it, though some reports indicated it could be as soon as Thursday.
The plan would represent another shift in Trump’s aggressive trade strategy, more than a month after the Supreme Court struck down the global levies he imposed in 2025, which excluded the pharmaceutical industry.
US President Donald Trump (C), alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (R) and National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Jayanta Bhattacharya (L), speaks during a news conference about prescription drug prices, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 12, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Since November, more than a dozen major drugmakers, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk, have inked deals with Trump to lower the prices of new and existing medicines. Those agreements are part of the president’s “most favored nation” policy, which ties U.S. drug prices to cheaper ones abroad, and exempted the companies from tariffs for three years.
Drugmaker that have fully executed deals or are currently negotiating with the Health and Human Services department would be exempt from the tariffs.
As part of the draft proposal, the administration would impose a 20% tariff on companies that plan to onshore production, which would increase to 100% four years from now.
Meanwhile, there are separate rates for the EU, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and the U.K. based on bilateral deals. There will also be zero additional tariffs on generic drugs, according to the draft document.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the draft pharmaceutical tariff plan.
The tariffs follow a Commerce Department investigation that determined certain pharmaceutical imports pose a national security risk to the United States.
Prior to the landmark drug pricing deals, Trump repeatedly threatened duties on pharma imports. Those threats – and efforts to get into the president’s good graces – fueled a new wave of U.S. manufacturing investments from the pharmaceutical industry. Those commitments come at a time when domestic drug manufacturing had shrunk significantly.
Bloomberg first reported on the new pharmaceutical tariffs late Wednesday.
