Market Voices: Trump vs. Big Pharma, Swiss tariffs, tariff legality

Seeking Alpha’s roundup of statements, announcements and remarks that could impact markets, sectors or individual stocks.

• President Trump sent letters to 17 major pharmaceutical makers advising them that they had 60 days to lower their prices in the U.S. to match those in other developed countries, according to the letters, which were posted on X.

Trump also told drugmakers to seek out ways to sell “high-volume, high-rebate” prescription drugs directly to consumers or businesses, a move that could cut pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, out of the process.

Trump went on to warn drugmakers that the U.S. government “will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices” if they refused to comply with his requests.

The letters were sent to the CEOs of AbbVie (ABBV), Amgen (AMGN), AstraZeneca (AZN), Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), EMD Serono, Roche’s (OTCQX:RHHBY) Genentech, Gilead (GILD), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Regeneron (REGN), and Sanofi (SNY).

Leading PBMs include CVS Health (CVS), Cigna (CI) and UnitedHealth (UNH).

• The Trump administration has hiked the tariff rate on products from Switzerland to 39% from 10%, with Swiss officials indicating on Friday they were caught off-guard by the move.

“The additional tariff announced by the U.S. president differs significantly from the draft joint statement. The draft joint statement was the result of intensive talks between Switzerland and the U.S. over the past few months and was approved by the Federal Council on 4 July,” Switzerland’s Federal Council said in a post on X.

“Switzerland has been and remains in contact with the relevant U.S. authorities. It continues to seek a negotiated solution with the U.S. that accords with Swiss law and its obligations under international law,” the council added.

• The Swiss manufacturing trade group Swissmem said it was shocked by the tariff hike.

“I am stunned. These tariffs are based on no rational basis and are arbitrary. This decision puts tens of thousands of jobs in the industry at risk,” Swissmem Director Stefan Brupbacher said, according to CNBC.

• Trade deals negotiated by the Trump administration will likely stick, even if a federal appeals court rules they’re illegal, according to the U.S. trade representative.

“The reality is, the countries understand the type of leverage that President Trump has created,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg on Friday. “That’s why they’re doing these deals, and they’re going to stick regardless of what happened in litigation.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is preparing to rule on whether the Trump administration has the legal authority to bypass Congress with its tariff negotiations. Bloomberg noted that it could be weeks before a ruling is handed down and the case could end up before the Supreme Court.