NYT on Indian generics manufacturing

Via the New York Times, this interesting article:

...India’s advantage is not just expertise. Peter DeYoung, the American-born chief executive of Piramal Global Pharma in Mumbai, runs more than a dozen factories, including in Europe and the United States. In America, he said, labor is the highest cost “by a wide margin,” followed by energy and materials. In India, it’s the reverse: Materials are the greatest cost and workers the least.

Mennisha Paka, 23, supervises a line at the F.T.O. U-3 factory for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, packaging generic metoprolol, a beta blocker prescribed to heart patients. She earns $3,840 a year and uses part of her salary to pursue a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry. One of her subordinates, Susmita, who goes by one name, earns about $2,000 a year.

I recommend reading the whole thing if you would like to understand what Indian generics manufacturers see as their advantage. I think it is particularly interesting that they view the relative lack of API manufacturing in India (compared to China) as their vulnerability, and that Indian construction is faster than the United States (not a particular surprise.) 

I have consistently imagined that 500-600% tariffs are needed in order to level the playing field, and those are economically not viable (especially now!) It's taken probably over a century for pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing to leave the United States, and it will not return overnight. 

FiercePharma: "Trump renews 200% tariff threat on pharmaceuticals, indicates plan for grace period"

Via FiercePharma: 

Already late with carrying out his administration's prior threats around pharmaceutical tariffs, President Donald Trump has again renewed his pledge of quickly imposing drug levies.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the President raised the prospect of slapping tariffs as high as 200% on foreign-made pharmaceutical products. In addition, he said he plans to give manufacturers at least a year to move their operations to the U.S.

“We’re going to give people about a year, a year and a half, to come in,” Trump said, as quoted by Bloomberg. “And after that they’re going to be tariffed if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country, the drugs and other things, into the country. They’re going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200%. We’ll give them a certain period of time to get their act together.”

I have been on record for a while observing that these tariffs seem unlikely to happen. I continue to believe this, especially since this is such a vital industry and the blowback would be almost immediate. Will the President pullet out? We shall see. 

I was also interested to note this obscure Bloomberg item: 

"Australia is “urgently seeking” more detail on President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 200% tariffs on pharmaceutical imports to the US, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said... 

Australia exported A$2.1 billion ($1.4 billion) worth of medicinal/pharmaceutical products to the US in 2024, or 38% of the nation’s overseas shipments of pharmaceuticals. That accounted for 0.4% of total goods exports, according to AMP Ltd."

I don't think of Australia as a major exporter of pharma goods into the US (they are not a large portion (I estimate them to be 0.5% or so ($1.4 billion and US imports overall appear to be in the $200 billion range)), but who knew? 

We'll see how this shakes out...