EU drug companies warn of exodus to US as Trump threatens import tariffs

Pharmaceuticals companies, including Novo Nordisk, maker of the diabetes drug Ozempic, met the EU president on Tuesday. Photograph: Steve Christo/Corbis/Getty Images

Pharmaceutical companies in the EU have warned of a “risk of exodus” to the US as stocks in the sector slid around the world on the back of Donald Trump’s renewed threat to impose tariffs on US drugs imports.

Drugmakers’ shares across Europe and India, another foreign pharma hub, slipped on Wednesday after Trump indicated that further carnage was on the way in addition to the 20% “reciprocal tariffs” on imports that kicked in overnight.