AstraZeneca (AZN) CEO Pascal Soriot is not overly concerned about the threat of tariffs by the Trump administration on pharmaceuticals and said a more favorable corporate tax credit could motivate the industry to reshore manufacturing.
“We believe the best way forward is to not charge tariffs on pharmaceuticals but [instead] create an environment that attracts investments through an attractive corporate tax rate,” Soriot told Yahoo Finance in an interview Tuesday.
He said on an earnings call earlier Tuesday that the company does not view the tariffs as a long-term headwind.
Tariffs are “certainly not material long term,” Soriot said, adding that AstraZeneca will rely on the existing global network to shift manufacturing as needed.
That includes 11 manufacturing sites in the US, which produce both small and large molecules. Most of the products sold in the US are manufactured in the US, Soriot told Yahoo Finance.
The company previously announced plans to expand manufacturing and R&D in the US to the tune of $3.5 billion, Soriot and other executives reiterated during the call.
Read more about AstraZeneca’s stock moves and today’s market action.
AstraZeneca reported mixed first quarter earnings Tuesday, sending its stock up just under 2% in trading.
The company reported core earnings per share of $2.49, compared to Wall Street estimates of $2.26 per share. Revenues came in at $13.59 billion, missing Wall Street’s estimates of $13.76 billion.
Soriot has recently increased the company’s visibility, lobbying on both sides of the pond. That includes rejoining the industry’s top lobbying group in the US, PhRMA, after a two-year hiatus, and pushing the European Union to invest more in R&D for medicines.
He told Yahoo Finance that a lot of innovation in the industry “is funded by the US.”
“So our view is that Europe has to allocate more funding to innovative pharmaceuticals,” Soriot said. “Europe has to contribute to this innovation effort. It can’t just be the US.”
Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.
