Pharmaceuticals Calls for emergency taskforce to safeguard medicines supply

Ministers are having an "active conversation" with UK pharmaceuticals firms about the potential impact of US tariffs, amid calls for an emergency taskforce to make sure the supply of medicines is not disrupted.

- Rowena Mason

The UK has been trying to head off the threat of tariffs on the pharmaceuticals industry, which exports about £7bn of goods to the US - just behind the £8.3bn of car exports.

Ministers and negotiators are fighting to keep the exemption from tariffs for British drugmakers through a possible trade deal but one Whitehall source said it was "impossible to read the runes" about whether the Trump administration would hit them with the levies.

UK government sources said ministers have been talking to industry bosses about the potential impact and what could be done to help the pharmaceuticals exporters if tariffs are brought in.

One said it was "an important sector for the economy" and there was an "active conversation" about how the government could help if the sector were hit with tariffs by the US.

The industry has refused to comment on the possible imposition of tariffs but has been lobbying the UK government hard against the levy on branded medicines sales to the NHS, which they say is higher than in comparable countries.

In Europe, dozens of global pharmaceutical companies have sent a letter to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, requesting help to maintain operations in the EU in the face of threatened US tariffs, including measures to compensate them for the cost of pharmaceutical innovations.