Rates threaten a shortage of pharmaceuticals as 95% of ibuprofen comes from China

• The United States get the vast majority of China’s common generic drugsThat is, President Donald Trump’s heavy rates for Chinese imports could cause a shortage of key drugs. Generic drugs are affordable due to the thin margins of manufacturers. Increasing costs as a result of rates could discourage them from producing certain medicines for pain relief.

The rates already have Many North -Americans worried Regarding the state of the economy, but incoming taxes on China pharmaceutical goods could have more literal headache.

The United States obtains almost all the supply of common medicines for China’s free sale pain, which means that the 145% rates of President Donald Trump in the country could have a general impact Torsten is extinct said on a Wednesday Bloc publication. About 95% of US ibuprofen comes from China, SLØK said, quoting data from the coalition of the ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION Organization for a America Prosperus and the National Health Institutes of the National Biotechnology Information Center.

More than 90% of the anti -inflammation hydrocortisone supply also comes from China, as well as 70% of acetaminofen and 45% of US penicillin imports. The United States is particularly relying on China More affordable and generic drugsand the generic medicines are composed 90% of the recipes filled In the United States, according to food and drug administration.

The rates have already threatened more widely the Availability of consumer products In the United States, North -American companies stored goods before the rates came into force, only to remove it once these products became more expensive.

“The consequence will be empty shelves in US stores in a few weeks and scarce as Covides for consumers and for companies using Chinese products as intermediate products,” said SLøk in a Publication of April 25.

This shortage is imminent, according to Gene Soroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the largest port in the United States, which receives about 45% of its imports from China. Seroka has begun to see a “hasty drop” He predicted in China’s shipping, and will only translate into five to seven weeks more inventories in detail shelves.

The White House did not respond immediately FortuneResearch on plans to exempt the medicines of rates.

Aggravating a shortage of drugs

For America’s drug supply, rates could make a bad problem worse.

The United States have defended with a shortage of stubborn drugs in the last three quarters, with 270 Active Scant From March 2025, but downward from the maximum scarcity of 323 in early 2024, according to the commercial organization American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. These scarce can be caused by Natural disasters temporarily stop production or regulatory challenges.

Key actors in the pharmaceutical industry Fear fees will be powered by the factors that drive scarcity. Generic medication benefit margins are incredibly thin to keep them affordable, which means that some manufacturers could stop producing too expensive medicines as a result of increasing the cost of raw materials, according to John Murphy, chairman and CEO of the ACCKNOWN ACCESSIBLE MEDICINA Association (AAM). To get worse, Murphy said, any hiccups in the supply chain will also increase the prices of medicines for consumers.

“The AAM is worried … that any task on pharmaceuticals, in particular inputs, will increase the cost of manufacturing generics and biosimilaars in the United States, and thus translates into higher prices of medicines and decrease in access for patients in our country,” Murphy said in a March letter For the United States commercial representative, Jamieson Greer.

Despite Trump’s intention with rates, such as domestic production, American pharmaceutical companies may hesitate to have the opportunity to increase their own manufacturing capabilities, Marta Wosińska, health economist and senior companions at the institution of Brookings, I talked to USA. The future of rates, with Trump now considering the cut “substantially” Taxes: They create too unpredictability for pharmaceutical companies to take significant measures to address them.

“Making an investment of a billion dollars in the United States when I don’t even know if the rates will be there for a month from now on it is a really difficult calculation for companies,” said Wosińska.

This story originally presented to Fortune.com