How Trump’s Latest Tariffs May Affect Your Medicines

For months, as President Trump threatened to impose punishing tariffs on imported medicines, fears mounted that American patients would be harmed by higher prices and shortages of vital drugs.

The details of the drug tariffs Mr. Trump announced on Thursday night are still coming into focus. Here’s what is known so far.

Will my medicine be subject to the new tariffs?

For the vast majority of prescription drugs taken in the United States, the answer is no.

Cheaper, old generic drugs, which account for about 90 percent of Americans’ prescriptions, will face no tariffs, a Trump administration official confirmed on Friday.

What if I’m taking a brand-name drug?

If your brand-name drug is made in the European Union, as many are, it could soon be subject to a tariff of up to 15 percent. It is not clear yet when that will go into effect. Some of the best-known and most widely taken brand-name drugs are made in the bloc.

If your medicine is made in the United States, the second-most common region for brand-name drug manufacturing, it should not be affected by the tariffs.

If your drug is made in certain other countries, it could possibly soon be hit by the tariff of 100 percent. Some of the drug manufacturing that could potentially be vulnerable to that is in Switzerland, Britain, Singapore, India, China, Canada and Mexico. But those countries make a relatively small share of Americans’ brand-name drugs.

And just because your drug is made in one of those places doesn’t mean it will necessarily be hit by a tariff. Companies may be able to avoid the tariffs for certain products they’re still manufacturing overseas if they tell the Trump administration they plan to move some of that production to a factory they’re building in the United States.

For example, if a company makes your heart disease drug in Ireland but is building a factory in North Carolina to make that drug there, there may not be a tariff imposed on that drug.

Will the price of my drug go up?

The tariffs could result in modest price increases for certain brand-name drugs. Experts said they were more concerned about a rise in prices on some niche products made by smaller drug companies, not with most of the industry’s biggest blockbusters.

That could result in higher out-of-pocket costs for some Americans, notably patients whose insurance requires them to pay a deductible or a percentage of a drug’s price.

In some cases, however, contractual agreements and the threat of steep financial penalties may deter manufacturers hit by tariffs from sharply raising prices.

Will I still be able to get my medicine?

Experts said there is potential for disruption in the supply of some niche brand-name products made by smaller drug companies that can’t afford to move production to the United States. A smaller company suddenly hit by a 100 percent tariff could decide to exit the U.S. market or sell the product line — and with patent-protected brand-name products, there are no alternatives from competitors.

They said they were not concerned about any shortages of the most popular brand-name drugs. Even if they have to pay a steep tariff for a while, their makers have such fat profit margins that they have strong incentives to make sure a product stays available.

How can I tell where my drug is made?

Your drug’s packaging may say where a key stage of its manufacturing took place. The federal government offers a handy search tool.

But the information on the packaging may give an incomplete picture. Sometimes, it just states where companies have their corporate offices. Or your drug’s label might say it is made in India, without specifying which stage of the manufacturing process happened there. The label also won’t say where the raw materials were made.

You can also look up Food and Drug Administration documents online for more details on which facilities made a drug, at least when it was nearing approval. But those files can be cumbersome to navigate.

Ana Swanson contributed reporting.