Imported generic drugs could face tariffs of up to 100% beginning in 2028 under a plan announced Tuesday by President Trump, who said the measure is intended to push manufacturers to move production to the U.S.
Health policy experts said they are skeptical the tariffs alone would persuade generic drug manufacturers to relocate production to the U.S.
“A tariff can be part of a broader strategy, but is not going to by itself lead to onshoring,” Marta Wosińska, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center on Health Policy, said on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump announced Tuesday the 100% tariffs on generic drugmakers will begin in August 2028 and increase to 200% after one year.
“This is done in order to RESHORE Generic Pharmaceutical Production into America,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
The measure could portend major changes for the generic drug industry, which accounts for 90% of prescriptions filled in the U.S., according to the Food and Drug Administration. Generic medications are manufactured with the same active ingredients as brand-name drugs but typically cost much less.
Generic drug manufacturing has increasingly shifted overseas during the past decades, with India now supplying more than 50% of the generic prescriptions filled in the U.S., according to a 2025 report by the Senate Committee on Aging.
The U.S. also relies heavily on China, which provides 95% and 70%, respectively, of imported ibuprofen and acetaminophen and as much as 45% of penicillin imports, the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization, said in a 2023 report.
Mr. Trump’s plan provides a two-year runway for drug manufacturers to reshore production, White House spokesman Kush Desai told CBS News, who pointed to other administration policies such as full equipment expensing as aiding in the transition.
“The President’s resounding success securing firm reshoring plans from global drugmakers as part of our most-favored-nations deals and Section 232 tariff program for branded drugs is proof that this administration has a track record of success to get critical manufacturing back into the United States,” he said in an email.
Here’s what experts say about the tariff’s potential impact.
What would the tariffs mean for drug prices?
Generic drug manufacturers have slim margins, which could limit their ability to absorb the impact of tariffs, said Mariana Socal, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“Any changes to the tariff structure are likely to be passed through to the consumer,” she told CBS News.
Still, she added, competition and existing contracts may limit manufacturers’ ability to immediately pass tariff costs on to buyers.
If consumers did see higher prices, the increases would be relatively modest because generic drugs are generally inexpensive, Wosińska said.
Would companies move their manufacturing operations?
The two-year timeline for reshoring generic drug production may be difficult to meet, experts said.
“These are facilities that require very specific equipment and infrastructure and quality standards,” Socal said.
Companies will also need to consider whether the threat of tariffs is enough of an incentive to build manufacturing facilities in the U.S., where production expenses are higher, experts said.
“It is a large expense and manufacturers will weigh the potential upside of making the kind of initial investment versus what kind of profits they are going to make,” Wosińska said.
The question is whether “a 200% tariff is going to be enough to justify that large of an upfront cost?” she added.
Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israel-based company that’s one of the world’s largest generic drug producers, declined to comment on whether the company plans to expand manufacturing operations in the U.S. The company said its focus “remains on ensuring patients have access to high-quality, affordable medicines.”
Sandoz, another leading generic drug producer headquartered in Switzerland, said generic medications are necessary for affordable healthcare in the U.S.
“We appreciate the administration’s objective of strengthening domestic production and supply chain resilience for medicines in the United States,” Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said in a statement to CBS News.
He added, “To achieve that goal, policymakers and industry must work together to create a sustainable framework that enables long-term investment in generic and biosimilar medicines.”
Experts said uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariff policy could also weigh on manufacturers’ decisions. Trade policy has shifted dramatically over the last year, with the Supreme Court ruling in February that Mr. Trump lacked the authority to impose certain tariffs, invalidating a large portion of the levies he had imposed.
Would this impact drug availability?
The pressure from tariffs could prompt some manufacturers to exit the U.S. market altogether, resulting in supply shortages, Wosińska said.
She said she’s concerned that “there is not going to be enough of an incentive for them to onshore. There is not going to be enough capacity if the tariffs were to come in, and manufacturers are just going to walk out of the market.”
Those pharmaceutical companies could end up prioritizing other markets that already pay more for the drugs, Socal said. She cited research she conducted showing that manufacturing facilities that produce generic drugs for the U.S. market are, on average, also producing and selling to two additional global markets.
“Some large manufacturers may have the intended response from this policy, but some other manufacturers may simply choose not to sell, and that would be a big problem for us,” she said.
