Overview
- The White House, which announced the policy Thursday, set 100% tariffs on branded drugs from companies that refuse new price deals and U.S. manufacturing, with a 120‑day grace period for large firms and 180 days for smaller producers.
- Drugmakers can avoid tariffs by agreeing to most‑favored‑nation pricing and building U.S. plants, face 20% if they onshore without pricing deals, and see capped 15% rates from the EU, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland, while Britain secured zero tariffs for at least three years.
- The pharmaceutical order targets patented medicines and their active ingredients and leaves generics and biosimilars to be reassessed in a year, which could shape what drugs cost and where they are made.
- A separate metals proclamation keeps 50% duties on raw steel, aluminum and copper but now calculates them on the U.S. sales price, and sets a flat 25% tariff on finished goods with more than 15% metal content while exempting items with less, starting just after midnight Monday.
- Officials said the actions follow Commerce Department national‑security probes under Section 232, and business groups warned the new scheme could raise healthcare and manufacturing costs as the administration pivots from last year’s broad tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down and that importers expect Customs to refund.