Trump administration backs off 100% pharma tariffs threatened to start today

STAT News – Wednesday, October 1, 2025
By Daniel Payne

President Trump told pharmaceutical companies last week that they should start building infrastructure in the U.S. — or face a 100% tariff, starting Wednesday.

But a White House official told STAT on Wednesday that the tariffs have not gone into effect and that the administration would now “begin preparing” tariffs on companies that don’t build in the U.S. or make a drug pricing agreement with the administration. The official didn’t share a new timeline for those import taxes, which would apply to branded drugs.

The postponement signals that months of tough talk from the White House on pharma tariffs may ultimately be aimed at leveraging more voluntary commitments from drugmakers, such as investing in the U.S. and striking deals to lower their prices.

The official pointed to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s comments on Tuesday, when he said he would let drug companies’ negotiations with the administration “play out” before imposing any national-security-related tariffs, which have been expected for months.

The administration did not respond to questions about which companies would be affected or which authority would be used to levy the 100% tariffs that Trump threatened last week.

The new messaging from the White House signals a delay in the tariffs — which Trump originally promised to begin “imposing” at the start of the month — in order to pressure more drugmakers to lower drug prices to levels paid by other countries.

That momentum has grown, administration officials said Tuesday, with Pfizer signing an agreement in which the company pledged $70 billion in new investments in U.S. manufacturing and lower drug prices by indexing them to other countries and offering medications directly to consumers.

As a part of the deal, Pfizer will avoid national-security-focused tariffs for three years.

Trump said more companies will make deals in the coming days — and once again threatened tariffs if they don’t.

“They’re all coming in over the next week,” Trump said Tuesday. “We’re making deals with all of them.”

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