US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that his administration would impose 100 percent tariffs on branded and patented drug products from October 1, 2025, unless manufacturing companies set up production facilities in the United States.
The Indian pharmaceutical sector completes more than 50 percent of the global demand for various vaccines, 40 percent of generic demand in the US and 25 percent of all drugs in the UK.
India’s annual drug and drug exports reached a record of US $ 30 billion in FY 2025, inspired by an increase of 31 percent year-on-year in March.
According to a government release, drug and pharmaceutical exports increased by US $ 2.35 billion in August 2024 to US $ 2.51 billion in August 2025 alone.
According to the Indian Drug Export Promotion Council (Pharmaccil), India’s drug exports in FY 2024 stood at US $ 27.9 billion, out of which 31 percent, about 8.7 billion US dollars (Rs 77,231 crore), were sent to the US. In the first half of 2025 alone, drugs worth US $ 3.7 billion (about Rs 32,505 crore) were sent abroad.
Leading companies like Dr. Reddy’s, Aurobindo Pharma, Zidas LifeSyins, Sun Pharma and Gland Pharma receive 30-50 percent of their total revenue from the US market.
According to a separate government report, India’s pharmaceutical industry is a global superpower, which ranks third in the world and 14th in terms of production value.
It supplies more than 50 percent of the global vaccine demand and about 40 percent of generic drugs to the US. The industry is estimated to increase US $ 130 billion by 2030 and US $ 450 billion by 2047.
On the strength of policy support for pharmaceuticals, such as the PLI scheme (Rs 15,000 crore) and the pharmaceutical industry strengthening (SPI) scheme (Rs 500 crore), the industry is continuously expanding its global presence.
The PLI scheme is promoting investment in 55 projects for the manufacture of high-level drugs like cancer and diabetes in India, while the SPI scheme, which focuses on increasing the quality, competitiveness and flexibility of small pharma companies, is funding research and development and modernization of laboratories, which is able to compete globally.
The report stated that in addition to cost-skills, India has emerged as the center of affordable, high-quality drugs, making its proper title even more confirmed as “world’s pharmacy”.
Earlier, in a post on Truth Social, US President Trump wrote, “Since October 1, 2025, we will impose 100 percent tariffs on any branded or patented pharmaceutical products, unless a company is building its pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in America. ‘Building’ is constructing ‘as’ preparing’ and/or/or/or ‘/or/or’/or/or/or/or/or/or/or/or/or/or/or/or it will be defined as’/or construction ‘.
Explaining the scope of this remedy, Trump said that companies that have started building plants in the US will be exempted from new tariffs. “Therefore, if construction has started, there will be no tariff on these drug products. Thank you for paying attention to the matter!”
He also announced a comprehensive tariff on various domestic products including imported kitchen cabinet and certain types of furniture, which is likely to increase even more costs in the range of increased prices in recent months. Trump also announced heavy tariffs on trucks and medicines.
Trump wrote in Truth Social Post, “We will impose 50 percent tariffs on all kitchen cabinet, bathroom vanities and related products from October 1, 2025. In addition, we will charge 30 percent tariffs on upholstered furniture.”
