According to CCTV News, on April 8 local time, US President Trump delivered a speech, saying that the US will impose tariffs on drugs. This policy not only breaks the framework of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Pharmaceutical Trade Agreement since 1994, but also may reshape the global pharmaceutical industry landscape.

Trump said that the US does not produce its own drugs and other health-improving products. The US often pays many times more for drugs than countries that produce them. Trump believes that once tariffs are imposed on drugs, pharmaceutical companies will set up factories in the US because it is the "biggest market".

Previously, everyone noticed that drugs were exempted from the US retaliatory tariffs, so it was believed that the pharmaceutical industry could avoid a disaster. But this situation may be temporary. According to Bloomberg, the White House is considering launching a so-called Section 232 tariff investigation into the pharmaceutical industry.

Now, Trump has explicitly mentioned imposing tariffs on drugs, confirming Bloomberg's report. If these tariffs are implemented, they may affect different links of China's pharmaceutical industry to varying degrees.

According to the China Chamber of Commerce of Medicines and Health Products Import and Export, in 2024, China's exports of bulk drugs to the United States reached 4.52 billion US dollars, and its exports of western medicine preparations to the United States amounted to 1.15 billion US dollars.

Apart from directly affecting the export of active pharmaceutical ingredients and preparations, Trump's tariff war may also impact other links in the pharmaceutical industry.

It is reported that on the 8th local time, European pharmaceutical companies have already warned at a meeting with the president of the European Commission that the US tariffs will accelerate the trend of the industry's shift from Europe to the United States. EFPIA, a trade lobby organization for the pharmaceutical industry (whose members include European pharmaceutical giants such as Bayer, Novartis, and Novo Nordisk), stated that it has called on the president of the European Union to promote "swift and fundamental action" to mitigate the risk of "outflow" to the United States.