Local drugmakers donated $4 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee earlier this year as the administration contemplates tariffs that could impose major financial strain on the industry.
Pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer each gave $1 million to the inaugural committee for Trump and Vice President JD Vance, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday. The drugmakers were among the more than 900 donors that contributed a record-breaking $239 million to the inauguration this year, more than doubling the $111 million Trump raised in 2017.
Pharma companies outside the city spent big as well:. Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly gave $500,000 and Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences gave $1 million. Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, a lobbying group known as PhRMA, also donated $1 million to the committee.
The donations flowed as pharmaceutical companies braced for the potential regulatory changes under the new administration. Trump has pledged to implement tariffs on drug products made overseas, part of an effort to encourage big pharma companies to manufacture medicines on U.S. soil. Merck and J&J, both of which have headquarters in New Jersey, have said they’ll expand manufacturing sites in the U.S., while Hudson Yards-based Pfizer says it is contemplating building more plants in the states.
Local drugmakers were not the only New York-based health care companies that gave to the inauguration. Capital Rx, a pharmacy benefit manager based in Flatiron, donated $100,000 to the inauguration committee, while Midtown-based drug retail platform Blink Health gave $50,000, according to the filing. Both companies target high costs of prescription drugs, a priority of the Trump administration.
