‘Big Pharma’ goes big on US spending

The recent announcement that Swiss company Roche (CH:RO) would pump $50bn (£37.4bn) into US manufacturing sites over the next 10 years underlines how seriously the global pharmaceutical industry is taking the threat of tariffs. This goes beyond what competitors have pledged, with AstraZeneca (AZN) planning $3.5bn in investment in the US and AbbVie (US:ABBV) outlining a $10bn investment. This is over the next decade, compared with Novartis’s five-year plan.

These pledges underline a definite trend as companies focus on shortening their supply chains and avoiding the worst of the undefined tariffs on pharmaceutical imports to the US. The Trump administration has floated a 25 per cent tariff since earlier this year, predating April’s ‘liberation day’.