In a Friday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato expressed optimism about the way forward for pharmaceutical innovation in the U.S., at the same time as the Trump administration slaps tariffs on imported medicine and cuts analysis funding.
“We’ve been through ups and downs at Johnson & Johnson over our 140 years of history. I’m an optimist,” Duato stated. “I believe in the strength of the life science industry in this country. I think that we will remain the leaders as we are today, the undisputed leaders in healthcare innovation.”
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would impose a 100% tariff on “any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product” coming into the nation, beginning on Oct. 1. However, the duties is not going to apply to firms which can be constructing drug manufacturing vegetation in the nation, Trump stated, together with tasks that aren’t but accomplished. Earlier this week, the Trump administration drew an unproven hyperlink between autism and pregnant girls’s use of acetaminophen, which is the important ingredient in Tylenol. The drug is made by Kenvue, an organization spun off from Johnson & Johnson two years in the past.
Duato highlighted Johnson & Johnson’s pledge to spend greater than $55 billion to construct 4 vegetation in the U.S., noting that the pharmaceutical big has formally damaged floor on a manufacturing facility in North Carolina. He additionally stated the firm has maintained a producing presence in the U.S. since its founding. Duato stated Johnson & Johnson plans to “bring great manufacturing jobs into the country, in robotics, in cell therapy, in biologics, to bring great middle class jobs” with its hefty funding.
Duato additionally mentioned numerous Johnson & Johnson’s new medicine, together with a remedy for myeloma in addition to one for bladder most cancers that simply acquired approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
“Here in this country, we have all the elements,” Duato stated. “We have the universities, we have the research institutions. We continue to attract great talent. We have the capital markets, and we have companies like us that are able to develop those medicines.”
