Big pharma fears drug price spikes in US-EU tariff spat, Reuters says

Drugmakers are urging the Trump administration and European Union officials to exclude medical goods from the tariff wars, Maggie Fick of Reuters reports. The companies hope to avert price spikes on top-selling medicines made in Europe, such as Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Wegovy for weight loss to Merck’s (MRK) cancer immunotherapy Keytruda. In discussions with U.S. officials, the pharmaceutical industry argued tariffs on the EU would increase drug costs and create access barriers for patients, more than half a dozen pharma industry sources with direct knowledge of discussions told Reuters. Publicly traded companies in the pharma space include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY).