"...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 wont be easy and tariffs wont do it, he said.
Theres 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 youre 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. Were not PhRMA, Murphy said, referring to the powerful trade group primarily representing makers of brand-name drugs. I dont have the resources to go to Mar-a-Lago to talk to the president myself.