Switzerland’s Roche on Friday underlined that one of its US units recently broke ground on a new facility after President Donald Trump announced new pharmaceutical tariffs that were not due to apply to companies building US plants.
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 given pharmaceutical company is building a manufacturing plant in the US.
A Roche spokesperson pointed to the August 25 announcement about its Genentech unit’s plans for a facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, as well as Roche’s $50 billion pledge to invest in US manufacturing and research and development.
Roche and Novartis are Switzerland’s two biggest pharmaceutical firms with major US production operations. Novartis, which also made a large US investment pledge earlier this year, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
An industry source estimated that, based on the initial US indications, the tariffs as set out by Trump on Thursday would probably not apply to the two Swiss companies. investors appeared to shrug off the news with shares in both Roche and Novartis trading slightly up early on Friday.
The Swiss government said the relevant departments are analysing the potential impact of Trump’s pharmaceutical tariff measures but that it did not have details of them.
