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The sudden tariff of President Donald Trump in Canada, Mexico, and China may deteriorate the existing drug shortage of the United States, raise the patient’s medical expenses, and threaten the generic drag maker tied to cash. The drug trading group in the club has warned.
Trump announced on Saturday that it will impose 25 % tariffs on almost all products shipped from Canada and Mexico and impose 10 % of imports from China. On Monday, both Mexico and Canada stated that tariffs would be suspended for about one month.
Nevertheless, the proposed imported tax is an unprecedented important medical shortage, from cancer therapy in injections in the United States to generics, or in lower versions of branded drugs that forced hospitals and patients. It will be brought when you are. Also, it has come because many Americans are struggling to afford to buy high costs for prescription drugs.
The United States is particularly dependent on other countries, especially for generic drugs. These drugs account for 90 % of American prescriptions, so customs duties can threaten access to affordable treatment.
In particular, China is a large -scale supplier of both brand and generic drugs or APIs because of its low domestic manufacturing costs. API is the main ingredient of drugs that cause the desired effects of treatment. Some generic drugs are completely manufactured overseas.
According to a statement from John Murphy, a CEO of the Pharmaceutical Association, which is an accessible pharmaceutical agency, the tariff is “a shortage of drugs that are already problematic by forcing generic manufacturers from the market due to low profit margins. You can increase it.
“General manufacturers cannot simply absorb new costs,” Murphy said on Sunday. “Our manufacturers are sold at very low prices, sometimes sold by loss, and are being forced to leave underwater markets.”
He encourages the Trump administration to exempt generic products from tariffs, and the overall value of all the United States’s generic sales is “volume growth” and 6.4 billion dollars in five years in five years. In addition to the decrease.
Healthcare distribution Alliance, which represents 40 drug dealers, is seeking the Trump administration to reconsider the customs duties. In a Sunday statement, the group stated that tariffs could burden pharmaceutical supply chains and “it could have a negative effect on American patients.”
The group pointed out that customs duties would apply additional pressure to industries that had already fallen into financial pain, and pointed out that distributors were working at a low profit margin of only 0.3 %.
The United States is more likely to see the “new deterioration of important drugs”, and their costs are “inherited by payers and patients, including med care and medical programs.” 。
According to Yale University’s Budget Research Institute, the long -term price of US pharmaceutical products will be 1.1 % higher after the supply chain shift.
Pharmaceutical research and manufacturers, which represent pharmaceutical companies, have stated in a statement that the United States has shared Trump’s goal of maintaining “bio -drug innovation and manufacturing global leadership”.
The group added that trade measures should be focused on “protecting intellectual property and protecting intellectual property”.
Medical equipment
The United States also depends on overseas manufacturing of medical devices, and many major elements and finished products are procured from countries such as China, Mexico and India.
for example, Intuitive surgeryLast week’s annual report has produced a robot surgery system, and it has been revealed that the company’s devices and accessories are manufactured in Mexico Mexicari.
The country’s tariffs said, “increase the cost of products manufactured in Mexico and adversely affect gross profits.”
The ADVAMED is the world’s largest medical device association, urging the Trump administration to exempt medical products from tariffs. In a statement, the group stated that imported tax could lead to an important lack of medical technology, the price of patients and payers, and a decrease in investment in R & D.
The advice that the expenses related to tariffs are essentially functioning as “actual item tax”, provided many medical sculptures to many medical technology sector when Trump imposed tariffs on China during the first term. He pointed out that he pointed out.
Customs duties can also affect hospitals. Hospitals can affect hospitals that depend on daily supply, such as gowns, gloves, and syringes, along with more items such as X -ray devices.
However, the American Medical Manufacturers Association, which proposes medical protection equipment and US companies that produces PPE, support Chinese tariffs and the increase in domestic production of these products.
According to a statement on Monday, the group said that China did not change the method, harms US PPE and medical supply manufacturers, and threatens the supply chain and national security. I am continuing to engage in. “
