Pfizer to transfer overseas manufacturing to US if Trump imposes pharma tariffs
If the Trump administration imposes tariffs on pharmaceuticals, Pfizer will transfer some of the company’s overseas manufacturing to its 13 U.S. sites, according to CEO Albert Bourla.
On Monday, Bourla told the TD Cowen Annual Health Care Conference that Pfizer’s 13 sites are “probably” the largest U.S. manufacturing network of any pharmaceutical company, with some “mega” sterile injectables facilities.
“We have all the capabilities here and the manufacturing sites are operating in good capacity right now,” Bourla said. “If something happens, we will try to mitigate by transferring from manufacturing sites outside to manufacturing sites here — the things that can be transferred quickly. We don’t have to build the network.”
Eli Lilly last week announced that it is investing $27 billion to build four new U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing sites. This is on top of the pharma giant’s previous total domestic capital expansion commitments of $23 billion since 2020.
Lilly’s latest investment comes as Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals, while pressuring drugmakers to reshore manufacturing to the U.S. and reduce reliance on China and other foreign supply chains.
Pfizer has more than 10 European locations for its global manufacturing network including a site for complex sterile injectables in Algete, Spain, an oral solids manufacturing site in Freiburg, Germany, and a sustainable drug substance manufacturing site in Strängnäs, Sweden.
Bourla in an interview with CNBC last month said his company’s manufacturing operations in Europe could be negatively impacted if the Trump administration imposes import tariffs on pharmaceuticals from the European Union. At the same time, Bourla noted that Trump’s tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico are not likely to impact Pfizer.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico took effect on Tuesday, with the 10% tariff on Chinese imports now doubled to 20%.
Thermo Fisher Scientific CEO Marc Casper on Monday told the TD Cowen Annual Health Care Conference that the company “doesn’t export much out of China” and the impact of tariffs on Canada would not be significant. At the same time, he noted that the “devil is in the details” in terms of tariffs on Mexico as the company has one plant in that country that is a “sister facility to U.S. capacity” with options for managing the situation.
On Tuesday, Canada and China announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., while Mexico didn’t provide details on any such measures.
In his comments Monday at the TD Cowen conference, Casper said reciprocal tariffs might have more of an impact on Thermo Fisher. “We really don’t know that the first wave of reciprocal actions will have much effect on us, but we’ll see how that plays out,” he said.
Asked at Monday’s conference about the impact on Pfizer of global tariffs, Bourla said the geopolitical environment is “so volatile” the company will have to wait and see what situation develops in other regions such as Europe.