In recent months, pressure on pharmaceutical manufacturers has continued to mount across the Atlantic due to tariff uncertainty, demands for lower drug prices and disruptions caused by shifting policies or staff changes within US health agencies. Although laboratories remain exempt from tariffs for now, they have tried to present a relatively calm front. Still, Donald Trump's repeated attacks on the industry do little to ease concerns.

The US president once again caused a stir on August 5. Speaking on CNBC, Trump reiterated his threat to raise tariffs on health products imported into the US to dramatic levels, aiming to force drug manufacturers to bring their production back onto American soil. "We'll be putting an initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year, one-and-a-half years maximum, it's going to go to 150%, then it's going to go to 250%, because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country," he stated.

Manufacturers − under pressure for months from the US administration to comply with Trump's demands − have already announced a series of major investments in the US since February. American laboratories such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead and Regeneron; Swiss companies Roche and Novartis; Japan's Takeda; France's Sanofi; and the United Kingdom's AstraZeneca have together pledged nearly $320 billion over the next five years to strengthen and expand their industrial presence in the US.

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