By Michael Erman, Maggie Fick and Lisa Baertlein
NEW YORK/LONDON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Some drugmakers are taking the unusual step of sending more medicines by air to the U.S., two executives and two logistics firms said amid fears President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariffs announcement could include products made in Europe.
Two European-headquartered drugmakers told Reuters this week they are sending as much of their medicines across the Atlantic as possible over the past several weeks and heard other pharmaceuticals companies were doing the same.
One of the executives said his company was “scenario planning” for possible tariffs and shipping more medicines by air using global cargo and transport firms including the United Parcel Service Inc and Germany’s DHL.
He declined to give more specific details.
A source at a third international drugmaker said they were quickly moving in available stock from overseas in an effort to get ahead of tariffs, but didn’t specify the shipping method.
DHL said it had seen a rise in pharmaceutical exports by air from Europe, but did not give a reason for the increase. UPS declined to comment. FedEx did not directly address the issue.
Pharmaceutical products have long been spared from trade wars due to the potential harms.
But Trump’s move to increase tariffs on goods from China, including finished drugs and raw ingredients, as well as an early round of tariffs between the U.S. and EU on goods like steel and bourbon, has raised expectations that medicines will join the list.
The U.S. depends on medicines partly produced in Europe that bring in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
Concerns about potential pharma tariffs began before Trump took office in January after he threatened universal import tariffs during his campaign. He has since repeatedly threatened a 25% tariff on pharmaceutical imports and on goods from the EU.
Kuehne and Nagel said it has seen “a couple” of larger pharma shipments to the U.S. – including by air – but it was too early to say whether it was related to tariffs.
Sending goods by plane is quicker than by sea, but significantly pricier. Companies typically use air freight for rare-disease medicines and vaccines which have shorter shelf lives.
The recent volume being transported in planes was above average, the sources said.
The second executive at a drugmaker said his company was “stockpiling” in the United States, the pharma industry’s biggest market worth about $630 billion, a step aimed at easing the immediate blow of tariffs if they are implemented.
