Belgium’s biopharma sector might be staring down a storm unless something changes—fast. That’s the warning from Caroline Ven, CEO of Pharma.be, who’s raising red flags about the future of the industry if current trends continue. “We’re on the brink of losing one of our strongest manufacturing pillars,” she said, pointing to growing pressures from across the Atlantic.
Just as Belgium’s exports to the U.S. soared to record levels, the European Commission began preparing to respond to new tariffs unveiled by Donald Trump on April 2. Interestingly, pharmaceuticals were spared from Europe’s retaliation playbook. That’s no accident—medicines, particularly from Belgium, remain a crown jewel in the EU’s export economy.
But the calm didn’t last. Even before the tariffs hit the headlines, the U.S. had already rolled out plans to push companies to make more medicines domestically and cut reliance on foreign suppliers. When Trump dropped his latest executive order—this one aiming to slash American drug prices to match those in other wealthy nations—global healthcare stocks took a beating. European pharma giants like Roche, AstraZeneca, and GSK saw shares sink between 3.3% and nearly 7%, and the MSCI Europe healthcare index slid almost 3%.
Analysts like Swissquote Bank didn’t sugarcoat the impact: “Their U.S. revenues are in for a squeeze,” one note warned.
Instead of slapping duties on imported drugs, Trump took a new route—price control. The May 12 order, dubbed the “most-favoured-nation” policy, would cap American drug prices at the lowest rate paid in any high-income country. Translation? Pharma firms would either have to match global prices or kiss goodbye to access to one of the world’s most profitable markets.
This policy shift reflects Trump’s long-standing pledge to reel in sky-high drug costs in the U.S., where patients often pay nearly three times more than those in comparable countries. Previous strategies—like targeting foreign-made medicines with tariffs—got plenty of blowback for risking higher consumer prices stateside. This time, the White House is going straight for the price tag while continuing to push for pharma manufacturing to return to American soil.
All of this is unfolding against a backdrop of booming Belgian exports. March saw a surge to nearly $3.4 billion in goods sent to the U.S.—a 46% jump from the same month last year and more than double February’s tally. What drove the rush? Panic over looming U.S. trade barriers had exporters scrambling to get ahead of the curve.
Still, keeping Belgium’s pharmaceutical edge won’t be a cakewalk. Industry group Essenscia is calling for a steady hand from policymakers—things like innovation tax breaks, research staff exemptions, and a predictable logistics framework. Without those, they say, the country’s competitive edge could dull.
ING Bank chimed in too, warning that new U.S. trade policies could lure branded-drug production stateside and discourage generic manufacturing in Europe. That shift, they argued, could shake the EU’s competitiveness and even threaten its medicine supply security.
With U.S. and EU trade talks in the background, pharmaceutical firms are turning up the lobbying pressure. They’re pushing hard to ensure Europe doesn’t lose its status as a top destination for pharma investment. ING stressed the urgency of safeguarding production of critical generics, warning that without strong backing, companies might pack their bags for countries with friendlier innovation climates.
