The News
US President Donald Trump’s tariffs will increase consumer drug prices and limit access to medicine, a top executive at Bayer Pharmaceuticals warned Friday.
Tariffs “are counter to what’s at the core of our mission to expand access and advance research and development,” COO Sebastian Guth said at the Semafor World Economy Summit. “Every dollar we spend on tariffs is a dollar we can’t spend on research and development. Make no mistake: tariffs will increase the prices of products.”
He said the “industry at large” will be forced to take resources away from researching new medicines, adding he is “urging policymakers to find solutions other than tariffs.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened 25% tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, and launched an investigation on national security grounds that could impose a duty on foreign-made drugs. Such tariffs would increase US drug costs by almost $51 billion annually, boosting prices by as much as 13% if passed on to consumers, a new Ernst & Young report found.
Bayer’s rival Merck recently said it expected to pay an extra $200 million this year because of tariffs Trump has already imposed.
The Semafor View
The boundaryless pools of money that defined finance in the last 20 years are retreating, and capital is becoming a national resource to be protected. Public and private markets seem set to converge: Where they meet — and which firms stake out territory — could determine finance’s winners over the next decade.