The Trump administration is preparing to impose new tariffs on brand-name drugs from pharmaceutical companies that have not reached historic deals with the president to reduce their drug prices in the United States, CNBC has learned.
Patented drugs and their active ingredients would be subject to a 100% tariff, according to a draft of the document obtained by CNBC. But there are ways drugmakers can reduce or avoid levies if they move production to the United States or negotiate deals with the administration.
The proposal is not final and it is unclear when the Trump administration might announce it, although some reports indicate it could do so as early as Thursday.
The plan would represent another shift in Trump’s aggressive trade strategy, more than a month after the Supreme Court struck down global taxes he imposed in 2025 that excluded the pharmaceutical industry.
U.S. President Donald Trump (center), alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (right) and National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Jayanta Bhattacharya (left), speaks during a press conference on prescription drug prices in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, May 12, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images
Since November, more than a dozen major drugmakers, including Elie Lilly, Pfizer And Novo Nordisksigned deals with Trump to lower prices on new and existing drugs. The deals are part of the president’s “most favored nation” policy, which ties U.S. drug prices to cheaper foreign ones and exempts companies from tariffs for three years.
Drugmakers that have fully signed agreements or are currently negotiating with the Department of Health and Human Services would be exempt from the tariffs.
Under the draft proposal, the administration would impose a 20% tariff on companies considering moving production offshore, increasing to 100% in four years.
At the same time, there are separate tariffs for the EU, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, based on bilateral agreements. There will also be no additional customs duties on generic drugs, according to the draft document.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposed pharmaceutical tariff plan.
The tariffs follow a Commerce Department investigation that determined that certain pharmaceutical imports pose a risk to U.S. national security.
Before the historic drug pricing agreements, Trump had repeatedly threatened to impose taxes on pharmaceutical imports. These threats — and efforts to curry favor with the president — have fueled a new wave of U.S. manufacturing investment from the pharmaceutical industry. These commitments come at a time when domestic drug manufacturing has declined significantly.
Bloomberg first reported on the new pharmaceutical prices Wednesday evening.