The on-again, off-again U.S. tariffs are off again, at least for now, for more than 75 countries that have reached out to the Trump administration to negotiate instead of retaliating. The 90-day pause will provide some breathing room for the med-tech industry. Pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients were among the few products exempted from the reciprocal tariffs, but that exemption for pharmaceuticals was expected to be short-lived. Meanwhile, pharma CEOs warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen April 8 that, unless the EU quickly changes its policy, pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing is increasingly likely to be directed to the U.S.

The April 8 Senate hearing on the Trump administration’s tariffs generated some heated debate, although U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer parried some of the criticism by pointing to the yawing trade deficit.

The extent of the damage that will be caused if the U.S. overseas aid program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is axed or has its funding cut, is laid out in an expert analysis published in The Lancet April 8, which estimates nearly 500,000 children could die from AIDS-related causes by 2030, while 1 million children will be infected with the virus.

Ill-considered government policies, pharmacy benefit manager market abuses and an unpredictable future are casting doubt on the long-term sustainability of the U.S. biosimilar market, Craig Burton, the executive director of the Biosimilars Council, told a House Ways & Means subcommittee April 8.

The nationwide preliminary injunction keeping the U.S. NIH from slashing its indirect cost rate to a flat 15% has become permanent. In issuing the permanent injunction and final judgment April 4 in three challenges to the rate change, Judge Angel Kelley, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said the NIH’s Feb. 7 notice that it would begin imposing the 15% rate Feb. 10 to all existing and future grants violated the Administrative Procedure Act, as the action was arbitrary and capricious, was impermissibly retroactive and failed to follow notice-and-comment procedures.

President Donald Trump’s executive order on global tariffs have pushed downward the stocks of biopharma and med-tech companies, even though the impacts of his 10% baseline tariff – which excludes pharmaceuticals – and his reciprocal tariffs affecting about 60 countries across the globe, are still unclear. “The story for the day is there’s still a lot of uncertainties in terms of pharmaceuticals,” said Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow and director of the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank. “It’s going to pressure margins, pressure availability. This is just a complete negative for the industry. It’s self-inflicted. It’s not just unnecessary, it’s unwarranted.”

Following news of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs on Australian exports to the U.S., Australia’s Securities Exchange shed nearly AU$55 billion in losses Thursday morning. Even so, pharmaceuticals have escaped the tariffs for now. In China, Trump’s tariffs are not a big concern for China’s health care because drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients are exempted from the tariffs. Even if tariffs are imposed in the future, Chinese pharmaceutical companies have already significantly de-risked themselves in recent months by increasing out-licensing models with U.S. partners.

Biomedical research seems like it should be the ultimate bipartisan issue. But under the Trump administration, unless and until Congress regains its will to make use of its constitutional powers, bipartisan support for research seems to be a thing of the past. On March 3, members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine warned that the second Trump administration has been waging a “wholesale assault” on American research.

At first glance, it appears that biopharmaceuticals dodged the latest U.S. tariff bullet; med-tech, not so much. According to the executive order President Donald Trump signed in the Rose Garden late yesterday, pharmaceuticals are one of the few things exempt from the new country-by-country reciprocal tariffs that will be going into effect over the next week. However, U.S.-based manufacturers of both drugs and devices could face supply chain disruptions, further market restrictions and increased operating costs as the new tariffs take effect and other countries retaliate.

After several on-again, off-again tariff threats, U.S. President Donald Trump made it official April 2: Beginning immediately, the U.S. will levy “kind reciprocal” tariffs on countries across the world. Focusing on the numbers, Trump didn’t mention whether any goods would be exempt from the new tariffs, and the executive order he signed at the Rose Garden ceremony wasn’t available as of press time. However, in concluding his remarks, Trump said the pharmaceutical industry would “come roaring back” in the U.S., because if biopharma companies don’t, they will be facing big taxes.