Pharmacists brace for drug shortages and soaring costs

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Raw Story

May 18, 2025 5:15AM ET


In the dim basement of a Salt Lake City pharmacy, hundreds of amber-colored plastic pill bottles sit stacked in rows, one man’s defensive wall in a tariff war. Independent pharmacist Benjamin Jolley and his colleagues worry that the tariffs, aimed at bringing drug production to the United States, could instead drive companies out of business while raising prices and creating more of the drug shortages that have plagued American patients for several years.

Jolley bought six months’ worth of the most expensive large bottles, hoping to shield his business from the 10% across-the-board tariffs on imported goods that President Donald Trump announced April 2. Now with threats of additional tariffs targeting pharmaceuticals, Jolley worries that costs will soar for the medications that will fill those bottles.

In principle, Jolley said, using tariffs to push manufacturing from China and India to the U.S. makes sense. In the event of war, China could quickly stop all exports to the United States. “I understand the rationale for tariffs. I’m not sure that we’re gonna do it the right way,” Jolley said. “And I am definitely sure that it’s going to raise the price that I pay my suppliers.”

Squeezed by insurers and middlemen, independent pharmacists such as Jolley find themselves on the front lines of a tariff storm. Nearly everyone down the line — drugmakers, pharmacies, wholesalers, and middlemen — opposes most tariffs. Slashing drug imports could trigger widespread shortages, experts said, because of America’s dependence on Chinese- and Indian-made chemical ingredients, which form the critical building blocks of many medicines. Industry officials caution that steep tariffs on raw materials and finished pharmaceuticals could make drugs more expensive.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/tarrif/

[littlemissmartypants]

1. From the article...

"...no amount of tariffs will compel makers of generic drugs, responsible for 90% of U.S. prescriptions, to build new factories in the U.S. Payment structures and competition would make it economic suicide, she said.

Several U.S. generics firms have declared bankruptcy or closed U.S. factories over the past decade, said John Murphy, CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines, the generics trade group. Reversing that trend won’t be easy and tariffs won’t do it, he said.

“There’s not a magic level of tariffs that magically incentivizes them to come into the U.S.,” he said. “There is no room to make a billion-dollar investment in a domestic facility if you’re going to lose money on every dose you sell in the U.S. market.”

His group has tried to explain these complexities to Trump officials, and hopes word is getting through. “We’re not PhRMA,” Murphy said, referring to the powerful trade group primarily representing makers of brand-name drugs. “I don’t have the resources to go to Mar-a-Lago to talk to the president myself.”

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "Several U.S. generics firms have declared bankruptcy or closed U.S. factories over the past decade,"

and not just ours but what was once the biggest generic company here - Teva - (which was an Israeli company) started having many issues at its plants here and recently settled with the government for financial malfeasance - Teva Pharmaceuticals Agrees to Pay $425 Million to Resolve Kickback Allegations

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Interesting! ❤️

[CountAllVotes]

2. K&R

& recommend.

[NNadir]

3. Early in my career, I was involved in the importation from Europe of key intermediates for protease inhibitors for AIDS.

If we didn't deliver, people died. It's not a water spigot. It takes years and years to be qualified to make these materials.

Trust me. People will die as a result of this policy.

[PatSeg]

5. A lot of people are going to die

because of many of his policies and he probably will not get the blame he deserves.

[vapor2]

7. Seriously,

they DON'T care if people die.