WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Pharmacist Steve Mitchell with Circle Drug on Robinson Drive in Waco talks on what can potentially happen with the costs of your prescription drugs as tariffs loom.
- According to an FDA analysis in 2019, 72% of foreign active pharmaceutical ingredients are overseas, 13% are from China.
- 90% of prescriptions are generic.
- A 25% U.S. tariff on pharmaceutical imports could increase U.S. drug costs by nearly $51 billion annually.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
KXXV came to the Circle Drug in Robinson to ask about potential tariffs. Pharmacist Steve Mitchell, who has been with this neighborhood pharmacy for more than 15 years, said he hasn’t seen anything yet, but with the ongoing negotiations between China and the U.S., Steve says anything can happen.
“We still don't know the outcome of the tariffs. There was some discussion that pharmaceuticals would be exempted from tariffs altogether," Steve said. "So if that's the case, then it wouldn't even affect us at all, but most of the insured patients have set copays anyway, so if they're $5 to $10 generic copays, that's not going to change for the patient. What does concern us is if there are increases in our drug costs at the wholesale level, then yeah and those increases aren't paralleled by the insurance companies or PBMs then that absorb that cost, you know, some level we don't know if it'd be the wholesale level or our level, but I would hate to see a lot of negative reimbursements, you know, that for a small business that's pretty hard to deal with."
According to an FDA analysis in 2019, 72% of foreign active pharmaceutical ingredients are sourced overseas, with 13% originating from China. The potential tariffs on China could lead to a rise in prices, triggering a domino effect.
“It would obviously raise the cost of the raw materials, which would have to flow downstream at some point. Um, we still don't know that that's going to happen. Um, we're kind of hopeful that the tariffs may promote, you know, some domestic production of our antibiotics or or any of our essential, you know, pharmaceuticals, if we made them here in the United States, we'd be less dependent on our foreign adversaries, but, uh, that we, we still don't know if that's going to happen, but it sounds like a good means to an end,” Steve said.
He also said he’s hopeful that tariffs will not impact the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. We will keep you updated on air and online when this story progresses.
