President Trump recently announced 100 percent tariffs on brand-name and patented medicines unless the manufacturer is also actively building a new plant in the United States. The policy will drive up prices for patients, create uncertainty in the market, and invite gamesmanship across the pharmaceutical industry.
Tariffs are not paid by foreign companies. They taxes are collected from American importers and passed on to American patients through higher list prices, premiums, deductibles, and copays. As in other industries, tariffs also create shortages—leaving some patients without needed medicines and diving up costs for those who can still access them.
Worse, tariffs are a regressive tax, hitting poor patients the hardest. Measured by cost—what tariffs are based on—Americans imported $212 billion in pharmaceuticals in 2024, much—if not most—of it brand-name or patented. A 100 percent tariff on even a fraction of those medicines would cost patients billions and make it even harder for the more than one-quarter of Americans who already struggle to afford their prescriptions.
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Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.