Some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies plan to announce an unprecedented $500 billion in spending to bolster their American research and manufacturing this year in response to President Trump’s decree that drugmakers ramp up their domestic manufacturing or face steep tariffs.
Since Mr. Trump took office in January, roughly a dozen domestic and international drugmakers have announced billions of dollars in investments to bolster their American manufacturing. They include international giants Novartis, Sanofi and GSK, and U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
The $500 billion total includes spending already announced and plans yet to be unveiled, said PhRMA, an industry lobbying group. Drugmakers will spend the money over a five- to 10-year period to reassert domestic control over drug manufacturing and respond to global uncertainties.
Up-and-coming drugmakers are also making investments.
Vaxcyte, a California-based startup that develops vaccines, recently announced plans to spend $1 billion to build a manufacturing facility in North Carolina. Grant Pickering, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said the move underscores that pharmaceutical companies are on board with the Trump administration’s push to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
“Scaling our fill-finish operations in North Carolina aligns with the Trump administration’s focus on domestic biomanufacturing while advancing our mission of delivering highly effective vaccines that protect against serious infectious diseases,” Mr. Pickering said.
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The manufacturing boom promises to transform the U.S. into the center of production for medicines to match its reputation for pharmaceutical innovation. The new manufacturing facilities are expected to generate roughly $1.2 trillion in economic output and more than 100,000 new jobs, including 25,000 biopharmaceutical jobs, PhRMA said.
PhRMA did not have data on how the half-trillion-dollar commitment to domestic manufacturing compares with previous years, but it noted that the biopharmaceutical industry spent $140 billion on research and development in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia in 2023.
Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of PhRMA, said the industry is “answering President Trump’s call to put America first by strengthening America’s leadership, improving access for patients and supporting good-paying jobs.”
Some of the largest drugmakers have announced significant manufacturing projects in recent months:
• Johnson & Johnson will spend $55 billion to build three manufacturing plants and expand others already in use.
• AstraZeneca will spend $50 billion to build its largest single manufacturing plant worldwide and expand manufacturing plants in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas.
• In August, Roche broke ground on a $700 million plant in North Carolina as part of a $50 billion plan to construct and expand research and manufacturing sites in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California.
• GSK will spend $30 billion to construct a biologics factory in suburban Philadelphia and expand artificial intelligence capabilities at five manufacturing sites in four states.
• Eli Lilly plans to spend $27 billion to build four manufacturing facilities across America.
The Trump administration has pushed pharmaceutical companies to move manufacturing back to America to increase jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on China for medicines.
Overall, about 80% of the drugs developed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies are manufactured abroad, primarily in India and China, because of those countries’ lower labor costs, less stringent environmental requirements and less red tape.
Roughly 700 drugs sold in the U.S. use at least one chemical sourced solely from China, said a report released Wednesday by U.S. Pharmacopeia, a nonprofit that develops chemicals used to make medicines. The report found that China was the only supplier of at least one chemical in common medicines, including antibiotics such as amoxicillin, and generic drugs to treat heart problems, seizures, cancer and HIV.
During the COVID-19 crisis, about one-third of the drugmaking factories in China shut down, and India restricted the export of its medicines. That massive disruption to the supply chain caused U.S. shortages of critical medications, antibiotics, sedatives and drugs used in combination with ventilators.
“A lot of America’s generic medicines depend on active pharmaceutical ingredients sourced from China and India, and India relies heavily on Chinese inputs. That is a textbook strategic vulnerability,” Peter Navarro, White House senior counsel for trade and manufacturing, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Times.
The Trump administration has sought to bolster American pharmaceutical manufacturing by loosening red tape and imposing steep tariffs on imported drugs.
Last month, Mr. Trump announced a 100% tariff on imported pharmaceutical products starting Oct. 1. However, he has not enacted the tariffs and is giving companies more time to negotiate deals with the government to lower drug costs.
The tariff includes exceptions for companies actively “breaking ground” or having construction underway in the U.S.
Some pharmaceutical companies said they aren’t worried about the tariffs because they have been building plants in the U.S.
Novartis, a Swiss drugmaker that announced it would spend $23 billion in the U.S. to build seven facilities and expand three others over the next five years, said the tariff “should not have an impact” because of its American investment.
The Trump administration started a program in August to speed up the construction and review of domestic drug manufacturing plants. The Food and Drug Administration program, dubbed FDA PreCheck, streamlines the review of U.S. pharmaceutical plans and eliminates unnecessary regulatory requirements.
“The FDA PreCheck initiative is one of many steps FDA is taking that can help reverse America’s reliance on foreign drug manufacturing and ensure that Americans have a resilient, strong, and domestic drug supply,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement.
Under the program, the first phase would bolster communication between the FDA and drugmakers for facility design, construction and preproduction. The second phase would facilitate preapplication meetings and streamline the development of manufacturing and quality control processes.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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