Pharma stocks in Europe reacted weakly to Trump's threats of new duties

Quotes of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Europe fell at the opening of trading, but then began to recover losses. Investors are reacting to US President Donald Trump's threat to impose prohibitive duties on imports of branded drugs.

Novo Nordisk shares fell by 2.5% at the opening of trading in Copenhagen, but then cut losses to 0.7%. Securities AstraZeneca in London initially slipped by 0.5%, but quickly went to zero. Quotes of Roche and Novartis in Zurich in the first minutes of trading went into negative territory, but quickly recovered and are now trading above the closing level of September 25.

Last night, the U.S. President announced that imports of branded (branded) drugs into the country will be subject to a 100 percent duty starting October 1. According to him, foreign companies will be exempted from these fees only after they start building plants in the United States. Earlier Trump threatened to raise duties on drug imports to 200%.

Strategists at JPMorgan Chase don't expect new duties to have a major impact on the pharmaceutical sector. "The 100 percent duty will largely be avoided by increasing production in the U.S.," they wrote after Trump's statements. "We continue to believe that the overall impact of the duties on the large-capitalization companies in our coverage will be very modest."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor