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Steep President Donald Trump tariffs In Canada, Mexico and China, existing drug defects in the US could exacerbate, increase health care costs for patients and threaten generic drugs without money, warn some drug trafficking groups.
Trump announced on Saturday that he would impose 25% of tariffs on almost all goods shipped from Canada and Mexico and 10% of imports for imports from China, and all came into force on Tuesday. On Monday, President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said that the US would delay their proposed tariffs in the country for a month after Mexico agreed Increase safety on its border.
Trump said the tariffs would stay in place until three countries stop the flow of fental and unfathomable immigrants to the United States
But the taxes on imports come while now fighting with unprecedented Lack of key medicine From injection cancer therapy to generic and cheaper versions of brakes, which forced hospitals and patients for ramp medicines. It also comes because many Americans struggle to afford high prescription drugs.
USA It relies very much In other countries for pharmaceutical products, especially for generic drugs. These medicines Assemble 90% Americans recipes, so tariffs can potentially endanger access to many patients affordable treatments.
China is a particularly large supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients or API, both for the name of the brand and generic drugs, due to the lower production costs in the country. APIs are the main component of the drug that causes the desired treatment effect. Some generic drugs are completely produced abroad.
Tariffs could “increase the already problematic disadvantages of drug” by forcing generic manufacturers from the market due to low profit margins, according to a statement From John Murphy, the executive director of the Association for Accessible Medications, which represents the generic pharmaceutical companies.
“Generic manufacturers just can’t absorb new costs,” Murphy said on Sunday. “Our manufacturers sell at an extremely low price, sometimes with a loss, and they are forced to go to the markets where they are underwater.”
He urged Trump’s administration to exclude generic tariff products, adding that the total value of all generic sales in the United States has decreased by $ 6.4 billion in five years, despite the “growth of volume” and new generic drug launch.
The distribution of health care distribution, which represents 40 drug distributors, also called on Trump’s administration to re -examine, including pharmaceutical products in tariffs. In a statement on Sunday, the group said that the tariffs would strain the pharmaceutical supply chain and “could adversely affect US patients”, whether it is through increased costs of medical products or manufacturers leaving the market.
The group announced that the tariffs would exert additional pressure on the industry already in financial distress, noting that distributors operate on low profit margins of only 0.3%.
The US is likely to see “a new and aggravated lack of important drugs”, and these costs “will be transferred to taxpayers and patients, including those in Medicare and Medicaid programs,” said the distribution of health care distribution.
An assessment The budget laboratory at Yale University said that the long-term prices for pharmaceutical products in the US will be 1.1% higher after a shift in the supply chain.
Pharmaceutical research and America manufacturers, representing pharmaceutical companies, said in a statement that he shares Trump’s goal of insurance that the United States is holding his “global leadership in bioparmaceutical innovation and production.”
Trade measures should focus on “resolving dishonest practices abroad and protecting our intellectual ownership,” the group added.
Medical devices
The US also relying on foreign production for medical devices, with many key components and finishing products from countries like China, Mexico and India.
For example, Intuitive surgicalproduced by robot surgical systems, published in its annual place report Last week that the “significant majority” of the instruments and accessories of the company are produced in Mexicali in Mexico.
Tariffs to Earth “would increase the costs of our products produced in Mexico and have a negative effect on our gross profit,” the company said.
Advamed, the largest medical product association globally, invited Trump’s administration to exclude medical products from tariffs. In a statement, the group said that import taxes could lead to a lack of critical medical technologies, higher prices for patients and taxpayers and less investment in research and development.
Tariffs and related costs basically function as “excise tax in practice,” said Advamed, noting that Trump provided carving for most of the medical technology sector during his first term when he imposed tariffs on China.
Tariffs can also affect hospitals, which rely on imports for everyday stocks, such as dresses, gloves and syringe, along with larger items such as X -ray equipment.
However, the American Association of Medical Manufacturers Manufacturers, which is advocated by US companies that produce medical personal equipment for protection or PPE, supports cinema tariffs and increasing domestic production of these products.
In a statement on Monday, the group said the tariffs recognized that China “did not change its ways and continue to deal with anti-concnity and dangerous behavior that damages US PPE and the producers of medical supply and threatens our supply chains and national security.”
During the pandemic, the American Association of Medical Manufacturers Manufacturers defendant China that reduced the price of face masks to underestimate American manufacturers.
