First quarter earnings reports from Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Intuitive Surgical Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. support trends seen earlier: Larger med-tech companies expect substantial tariff hits, but also have confidence that they can absorb the impact with fairly minor adjustments.

If U.S. sectoral tariffs on biopharmaceuticals become a reality and most country-by-country tariffs on other medical products resume, manufacturers may have to rethink their use of U.S. free trade zones to turn foreign-sourced active pharmaceutical ingredients and other components into finished products for the U.S. market.

First quarter earnings reports from Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories provided some surprising insights into the likely hit med-tech companies will sustain with current tariffs. The main takeaway? The impact of the trade war with China is far greater than expected by most analysts.

Roche AG has become the latest pharmaceutical company to respond to the Trump administration’s threat to impose tariffs, saying it will invest $50 billion in drug and diagnostics manufacturing in the U.S. over the next five years. That figure matches a similar commitment by its Basel, Switzerland-based neighbor, Novartis AG, which on April 11 said it would be investing almost $50 billion in the U.S., also over the next five years.

First quarter earnings reports from Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories provided some surprising insights into the likely hit med-tech companies will sustain with current tariffs. The main takeaway? The impact of the trade war with China is far greater than expected by most analysts.

First quarter earnings reports from Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories provided some surprising insights into the likely hit med-tech companies will sustain with current tariffs. The main takeaway? The impact of the trade war with China is far greater than expected by most analysts.

U.S. tariffs on biopharmaceuticals have advanced beyond administration talking points.As a precursor to tariffs, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick initiated an investigation under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act to determine the effects on national security of importing prescription drugs, according to a request for public comments scheduled to be published in the April 16 Federal Register. Publication of the notice will kick off a 21-day comment period.

The Trump administration applied a 90-day hold on nation-specific tariffs, but a group of 26 House Democrats urged the administration to think carefully before acting on a threat to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

In the wake of the pandemic, many leading med-tech companies took steps to on-shore and near-shore manufacturing, a move that could protect significant numbers of players from the worst of the effects of the tariffs announced by the Trump administration last week.

While the U.S. has historically led the global pharmaceutical industry by pursuing both continual innovation and high quality, those strengths could become areas of weakness in times of political uncertainty, according to PA Consulting expert Andy Prinz.