President Donald Trump’s crap sandwich of a trade “deal” with Europe is about to make the cost of some of the most popular and lifesaving drugs skyrocket—the latest negative consequence of Trump’s nonsensical tariff policy.
The “deal” Trump announced with Europe on Sunday puts a 15% tariff on pharmaceuticals imported into the United States from the European Union, which Reuters reported could cost pharmaceutical companies as much as $19 billion.
Those tariffs will cut into drugmakers’ profits, which experts say will cause those same drug manufacturers to pass those costs on to Americans. And that will lead insurance companies to either raise prices for everyone in the form of higher insurance premiums, or for individuals who purchase the affected drugs when they pick them up from the pharmacy.
Medicare and Medicaid—already facing pressure amid draconian Republican cuts—will also be hit, as the millions of Americans covered by those government health insurance programs also use the drugs that now face new and destructive tariffs.
“The big picture is: The cost of imported drugs is about to become more expensive for all Americans,” Joe Brusuelas, principal and chief economist for the management consulting firm RSM US, told Axios.
That’s the antithesis of Trump’s idiotic claim that he was going to lower drug prices by more than 1,000%—which shows he doesn’t understand how math or percentages work.
Reuters reported that 60% of the drugs imported to the United States come from the EU—including many popular and lifesaving medications.
For example, the diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound are all manufactured in the EU. So are biologics like Humira and Stelara, which treat everything from Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, to psoriasis. Keytruda—a miracle cancer drug that helps the body’s own immune system fight a number of deadly cancers like melanoma, lung, and lymphoma—is also manufactured in the EU and will be impacted by Trump’s tariffs.
Even more concerning for the MAGA crowd is that Botox is also manufactured in Ireland, which could spike the cost of the cosmetic injectable that Mar-a-Lago members load their faces with. Viagra is also made in Ireland, but we don’t want to speculate who in the MAGA-sphere uses that drug to avoid losing our lunch.
Drug makers, for their part, warned the Trump administration not to put tariffs on drug imports for this very reason.
“We encourage Commerce to focus this investigation on targeted strategic national security concerns, rather than imposing tariffs on innovative medicines that would not advance the Administration’s goal of enhancing national security nor address the trade barriers faced by the industry in foreign markets,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America wrote in a May letter to the Trump administration.
But Trump didn’t listen, and now all Americans are going to pay the price.
Ultimately, this is just the latest attack on Americans’ health by the Trump administration, which has cut funding for research to cure cancer and other devastating illnesses, attacked vaccines and fluoride, and signed legislation that will kick millions off their health insurance.