A worldwide pharma tariff coming.
Photo: DHT

A major shakeup on the way?

PHARMA TARIFFS COMING

U.S President Donald Trump has announced the United States will soon unveil a major tariff on pharmaceutical imports.

In an expansion of his trade war that would hit annual Australian Big Pharma exports, investors in healthcare giant CSL and others have an unnerved wait ahead.

Speaking at a National Republican Congressional Committee event, Trump said the tariff will incentivise drug companies to move their operations to the U.S.

“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals and once we do that they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market,” Trump said.

Until this point, the biopharma industry has largely been exempted from tariffs – except for 20% tariffs on imports to the U.S from China, implemented in March.

The U.S imposed a baseline tariff of 10% on Australia as part of its sweeping tariffs strategy, but deferred levies on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to a worldwide playing field.

“We’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places … Most of their product is sold here and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over our country.”

Australia exported $1.7 billion worth of products to the U.S in 2023, representing 40% of its total pharmaceutical exports of about $4.1 billion.

CSL’s vaccine department has already seen a 9 per cent decrease in revenue over the past year, as jab hesitancy continues to increase across the world.

Drop in immunisation rate hits Australian vaccine-maker’s revenue

The impending tariffs and backlash against vaccines could put CSL’s $313 million deal to bring “next generation mRNA flu shots” to our shores in jeopardy.

CSL to bring ‘next-generation’ mRNA flu vaccines to Australia

This is the same company that knowinglyreleased contaminated polio vaccine to the Australian public, so forgive me if I am not too sad for the impending domestic losses.

Learning From History: Infected Polio Vaccine

At the same time, all this will do will attempt to centralise the biopharma spider web inside of the United States, rather than impact the industry itself.

This will mean higher prices Aussies will have to pay for medicines, as this push does seem to be part of a larger plan to weaken the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

A push that has been ongoing for decades now.

BEYOND THE TARRIFS

The news of Trump’s coming tariffs follows recent rumbles in the U.S about Australia’s PBS.

American pharmaceutical giants, represented by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America industry lobby group (PHrMA), wrote to the Trump administration’s Trade Representative in March, blasting Australia’s PBS for slow approval processes. They called for an end to Australia’s “damaging pricing policies”.

U.S companies have long criticised Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) because drug prices are capped under the national subsidised medicine system.

20 years ago, they scored a victory when they secured major concessions from the Howard government, as America and Australia negotiated the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement.

But the PBS is still a situation that has long irked the pharma industry, which has courted politicians and parlayed its huge profits into a well-oiled influence-peddling machine.

The U.S. argues this process “systematically devalues U.S medicines” and fails to “appropriately recognise innovation” by preferencing cheaper generic versions of medicines, rather than the higher-priced originals in some circumstances.

Labor and the Coalition both say the Trump administration cannot exert any direct influence on the PBS, and that there is “no way” it will change.

“What we’re going to do is continue to advocate for Australia’s national interests, not the interests of big pharma,” Albanese told reporters last week.

‘Strong words, for such a frail man’, to quote the movie Frailty.

What are my thoughts on all of this?

If people want to be synthetically-addicted fools, I say at least let them do it for cheap. This is the true Brave New World vision – make soma free for the plebs! Aldous Huxley would be proud of the PBS!

Our friends and family members don’t need to be sucked dry by corporations whilst they’re in their brainwashed slumbers, as grim as it sounds. At least the PBS eliminates the extremes of pharma giants we see in America.

Australians are heavily doped-up, however, with prescriptions being one of the leading causes of death in this country – so perhaps there are negatives to so much available access.

There are pros and cons, and I just hope the whole spider web ends up with a massive hole by these shakeups.

Regarding the tariffs, CSL and others may be in for a rough time, and I’m all for it.

All of this couldn’t happen to a better industry.

What are your thoughts?

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!