Tariffs to impact drug imports

[WendyBG]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/health/prescription-drugs-manufacturing-tariffs.html

Where Your Medicines Are Made

President Trump’s planned pharmaceutical tariffs threaten to hit many of the most common and well-known drugs that Americans take.

By Rebecca Robbins and Jonathan Corum, The New York Times, Aug. 23, 2025

President Trump’s repeated threats to impose punishing tariffs on imported medicines have sparked interest in where Americans’ drugs are produced.

The picture is complex. Most of the time, drugs are not made in a single country from start to finish. More often, a factory imports raw materials that it uses to make a drug’s active ingredients, which then get shipped to a plant in another country that formulates the drug into a tablet or liquid…

A key geographic divide lies in how old medicines are, the data shows. Newer, more expensive patent-protected drugs, like those for cancer and obesity, tend to have their active ingredients made in Europe or the United States. India and China focus on lower-cost generics, such as statins and antibiotics, which account for a vast majority of prescriptions…

Drugs given as injections are more likely to be formulated in the United States, while India makes most of Americans’ pills… [end quote]

I have already been contacted by the Canadian middleman that orders one of my prescriptions from a list of international suppliers. They said to place the order right away to avoid the tariff. I placed the order. I hope it’s not too late because it’s a “de minimis” order.

I assume that the purpose of the tariff is to encourage manufacturing in the U.S. But the largest amount of foreign-produced drugs are low-profit generics so I don’t know whether U.S. manufacturers will invest in production even with tariff protection.

And the people who use the drugs are obviously sick and it’s pretty nasty to saddle them with additional costs.

Wendy

[todd10012]

No one’s gonna start manufacturing generics in the US. The administration just decided they want a tariff for whatever their reason of the day is. The general public (or half of them) is too stupid to understand what a tariff is.

[PucksFool]

Wowie zowie, that’s gonna make it hard to lower drug prices 1,500%.

[imuafool]

@WendyBG

I assume that the purpose of the tariff is to encourage manufacturing in the U.S. But the largest amount of foreign-produced drugs are low-profit generics so I don’t know whether U.S. manufacturers will invest in production even with tariff protection.

@todd10012

No one’s gonna start manufacturing generics in the US.

While I do not have access to the NYT article, here’s my input.

My and my wife’s long-term diversified equity portfolios currently include ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ANIP), a biopharmaceutical company, incorporated in 2001 and headquartered in Baudette, Minnesota that develops, manufactures, and markets branded and generic pharmaceutical products in the United States and internationally, i.e., in India with the acquisition of Novitium Pharma in 2021. The company provides injectables, softgel capsules, and Cortrophin gel, as well as ILUVIEN and YUTIQ products. It also manufactures oral solid dose products, semi-solids, liquids, topicals, controlled substances, and potent products. It markets, sells, and distributes its products through wholesalers, retail market chains, distributors and specialty pharmacies, group purchasing organizations, specialty pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and physicians.

ANI Pharmaceuticals Stock Price Performance

https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/ANIP/chart/#google_vignette

The ANI Pharmaceuticals (ANIP) stock chart highlights key performance trends across multiple timeframes.

• Over the last 12 months, the stock’s price has increased 46.43%, with a year-to-date return of 63.39%. In the past month, the stock has increased 33.85%, reflecting recent market activity.

• As of the latest close, ANI Pharmaceuticals traded at $91.01 with a market cap of $1.97 billion and volume of 432,200 shares.

• Five years ago, the stock traded at $32.00, representing a 182.25% increase over that period. At the time, it had a market cap of $384.72 million and a volume of 64,995 shares.

I’ll mention that Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA), an Israeli company, is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world.

Regards,

Ray

[JLC]

@WendyBG

medicines have sparked interest in where Americans’ drugs are produced.

If COVID supply chain disruption didn’t bring this to anyone’s attention, nothing will. That should have been a big wakeup call to onshore production. I was still working at the time and it was like playing 5 card stud to see what drugs we had available that day.

[intercst]

@WendyBG

I assume that the purpose of the tariff is to encourage manufacturing in the U.S. But the largest amount of foreign-produced drugs are low-profit generics so I don’t know whether U.S. manufacturers will invest in production even with tariff protection.

The largest pharma companies have likely already bought their way out of any penalty from the tariffs. That’s the way “crony capitalism” works.

intercst