ZURICH (Reuters) -Switzerland’s Roche on Friday pointed to the fact that one of its U.S. units broke ground on a new facility in August and that the pharma company had pledged major U.S. investments after President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement.
Trump said on Thursday the United States will impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a pharmaceutical company is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S.
A Roche spokesperson pointed to the August 25 announcement about its Genentech unit’s plans for the facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina as well as Roche’s $50 billion pledge to invest in U.S. manufacturing and research and development.
Roche and Novartis are Switzerland’s two biggest pharmaceutical companies with major U.S. production operations. Novartis, which also made a large U.S. investment pledge earlier this year, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
An industry source estimated that based on the initial U.S. indications, the tariffs as set out by Trump on Thursday would probably not apply to the two firms.
(Reporting by Paul Arnold, Editing by Friederike Heine)
Comments