Pharmaceutical stocks breathed a sigh of relief Friday after the Trump administration agreed to a 15% tariffs on drug imports from Europe.
The much lighter tariff backs off from President Donald Trump's promise in July to hit pharmaceuticals with tariffs up to 200% after a "year, year and a half." But Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger says the devil is in the details.
"We believe tariffs will apply to U.S. customs landing values (including high-value intellectual property costs embedded in imported prescription drugs in many cases), but we need to see specifics," he said in a report early Friday.
Separately, it's unclear if Eli Lilly will be exempt, as Trump indicated at a press conference earlier this year. Further, the administration is still running a separate Section 232 investigation. This looks into whether importing drugs from abroad could threaten national security.
Shares of the SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF rose around 1% apiece.
Follow Allison Gatlin on X/Twitter at @AGatlin_IBD.
