The city’s pharma giants avoided much of the initial turbulence felt by the rest of the economy in the wake of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The S&P 500 cratered Thursday following news of Trump’s tariff plan, losing trillions in a matter of hours and closing nearly 5% lower, the worst decline since the height of the pandemic. By contrast, stock prices for local pharmaceutical companies remained relatively stable following a broader trend in the pharmaceutical sector, which was spared from Trump’s move to place at least 10% tariffs on virtually every country in the world.
Pfizer stock was trading at $24.30 a share at market close on Thursday, a less than 2% decline. Merck stock prices fell less than 1% to $36.28. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals stock fell just over 2% to $610.64 a share. Bristol-Myers Squibb closed the day at $57.82, a roughly 3% drop. Johnson & Johnson’s stock price rose close to 3% to $159.82 a share, making it part of the minority of unscathed firms in the U.S. economy on Thursday.
An analysis from JPMorgan released Thursday said the industry was unlikely to feel the effect of the tariffs until 2026 while companies run through inventories already in the U.S. In the longer term, the sector may be able to shift manufacturing to the United States and cut down on expenses elsewhere, the report states.
Pfizer already has a relatively large domestic manufacturing footprint with 13 factories in the U.S. Last month, CEO Albert Bourla said the Hudson Yards-based company was prepared to shift more manufacturing to U.S. soil to mitigate potential tariffs.
The exemption has spared the industry for now, but observers continued to stress caution on Thursday. Uncertainty around future tariffs continues, and the impact of increased costs of equipment and supplies used in research and development could impact the industry, said Evan David Seigerman, the head of healthcare research at BMO Capital Markets. Scaling up manufacturing can take time as well; transferring the necessary technology from one facility to another can take 12 to 18 months, he said.
