By Ludwig Burger and Maggie Fick

Frankfurt/London (Reuters) – European pharmaceutical companies warned the president of the European Commission at a meeting on Tuesday that US customs duties were likely to accelerate the movement of the European industry to the United States.

The pharmaceutical lobby EFPIA, which counts European pharmaceutical giants Bayer, Novartis and Novo Nordisk among its members, said that he had asked Ursula von der Leyen to put pressure in favor of “rapid and radical action” to mitigate the “risk of exodus” to the United States.

Pharmaceutical products have been exempt from so -called “reciprocal” customs duties on American imports announced last week by US President Donald Trump, who said they would be the subject of separate surcharge.

The European Union (EU) must modify its regulatory framework for the industry in order to make it more conducive to innovation, on Tuesday pleaded the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Associations and Industries (EFPIA), also calling to strengthen European intellectual property provisions.

Complaints from representatives of the pharmaceutical industry is not new, the EFPIA having already warned several times that the European pharmaceutical sector would be the victim of increased competition from the United States, China and emerging markets if the EU did not change its proposal to revise the legislation governing the sector.

“Now, with the addition of customs duties, there is little incentive to invest in the EU and significant incentives to relocate to the United States,” said the EFPIA declaration.

The European Commission did not immediately respond to a comment request.

According to the latest Eurostat data, EU medical and pharmaceutical products to the United States amounted to around 90 billion euros in 2023.

(Written by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Maggie Fick in London,; with Julia Payne in Brussels; Mara Vilcu for the , edited by Blandine Hénault)

Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters