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Tariffs still threaten biotech
President Trump’s planned “major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” which aims to force U.S. onshoring of manufacturing, is still on the table.
The news: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday the 90-day pause on most country-specific “reciprocal” tariffs would not apply to sector-specific tariffs, such as pharmaceuticals, The Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Last year’s BIO member survey said reshoring or “friend-shoring” manufacturing could take eight years. BIO’s survey last month showed tariffs would delay or stop innovation, harm investment, and reduce patient access to medicine.
Agricultural biotech is also vulnerable. U.S. agriculture is a prime target for tariffs and trade disputes would foil efforts at speeding regulation of new biotech traits in foreign markets. (Read more.)
Concerns about pharma tariffs were aired by Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Mike Thompson (D-CA), and David Schweikert (R-AZ)—who said the U.S. lacks the infrastructure for onshoring—in a House Ways and Means hearing questioning U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer.
BIO’s view: “Re-onshoring key parts of the biotechnology supply chain to the U.S. and our allies and strengthening the American manufacturing base should be a high priority for both national and economic security. It will take years, though, for this shift and we need to be mindful of the negative consequences of these proposed tariffs,” according to BIO President & CEO John F. Crowley.
Drugs for rare diseases afflicting children “rarely make enough money to fund the incredibly expensive research underpinning them,” writes Neil Kumar, CEO of BridgeBio, in STAT News. “So instead of expensive taxpayer-funded grants or subsidies, the government has another way to make up the shortfall. Companies that successfully bring a treatment for a rare pediatric disease to market get a voucher for a speedy FDA review that can be used for a different, unrelated drug.” Kumar explains how the PPRV incentivized a breakthrough by his own company and urges passage of the Give Kids a Chance Act of 2025 to reinstate the PPRV.
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