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Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Amgen Stocks Rise After Trump’s 100% Pharma Tariff Threat. Here’s Why.

Sep 26, 2025 08:15:00 -0400 by Elsa Ohlen | #Biotech and Pharma

Eli Lilly stock rose early Friday even as President Donald Trump said branded pharmaceutical product could face a 100% levy from Oct. 1. (Dreamstime)

Key Points

President Donald Trump’s vow to slap 100% tariffs on pharmaceutical companies unless they manufacture in the U.S. didn’t have the knee-jerk market reaction that might be expected.

The announcement of 100% levies on imported branded or patented drugs sounds dramatic, yet, pharma stocks were mostly in the green Friday as the past few months have already seen a flurry of companies announcing plans to invest in the U.S.

Several factors play into the stock moves but with many unknowns, the news may be difficult to confidently trade on.

“The market reaction tells the real story: investors see more bark than bite,” said eToro market analyst Lale Akoner. “European pharma gets nudged to localize, while U.S. firms gain a policy tailwind.”

Eli Lilly , AbbVie , and Merck were all up at least 1%, while Pfizer and Amgen both gained 0.7%.

Even among large European pharmaceutical companies, reactions were relatively muted. That’s likely because most global drugmakers such as Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Roche have U.S. manufacturing facilities under way which could keep them out of the firing line. Novo’s American depositary receipts were down 0.8%.

“It is not yet clear how today’s announcement relates to the EU/US trade agreement,” said Novo’s CEO Mike Doustdar in an emailed statement to Barron’s Friday. “We look forward to working with the administration to ensure policies continue to support innovation, investment, and patient access on both sides of the Atlantic,” he added, also highlighting the more than $24 billion of investments in U.S. operations, including research and development and manufacturing, over the past 10 years.

U.S. biotech company Amgen announced early Friday a $650 million expansion of its domestic manufacturing network. Overseas companies have also made recent investments—Novartis made a $23 billion U.S. investment pledge earlier this year, while AstraZeneca and Roche have committed $50 billion each.

Trump’s remarks, made on his social-media platform Truth Social late Thursday, were light on detail. From Oct. 1, tariffs will be imposed on “any branded or patented pharmaceutical product, unless a company is building their pharmaceutical plant in America,” the president wrote. He defined “is building” as breaking ground and/or being under construction, leaving many investors with more questions than answers.

It’s also not clear how outsourced facilities would be treated, given that many companies leverage U.S. contract manufacturing sites.

Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger also questioned if the action could be reversed upon potential legal challenges, and if this is a negotiating tactic related to the Section 232 investigation to determine the effect of imports on national security since Trump has previously said companies would have 12-18 months to onshore manufacturing.

It’s even more difficult to predict the material effects tariffs could have on smaller biotechs.

American depositary receipts of Dutch company Pharming Group, which specializes in rare diseases treatments, tumbled 5.6% in premarket trading following Trump’s post. The move is understandable given the 97% of revenue coming from the U.S. said Jefferies analyst Lucy Codrington.

Codrington however cautioned that many unknowns remain “particularly in light of subsequent headlines that EU Pharma tariffs should still be capped at 15%.”

Smaller Danish drugmakers Zealand Pharma and Lundbeck also dropped between 2% and 3%.

Barron’s has reached out to all companies mentioned in this article for comment.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com