By Peter Loftus
The head of drugmaker Eli Lilly, which sells the popular weight-loss drug Zepbound, urged the Trump administration to ease up on its tariff rollout because it could hurt Lilly's business and the broader pharmaceutical industry.
"We don't believe tariffs are the right mechanism" to bolster U.S. drug manufacturing, Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks said on a conference call with analysts Thursday. The company reported higher than expected first-quarter sales and profits. Instead, Ricks said tax incentives and extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts would help.
"The announced tariffs currently in effect do not materially change Lilly's 2025 financial outlook," he said. "However, the expansion of tariffs in other geographies or increases in retaliatory tariffs would have a negative effect on Lilly and for our industry."
Ricks, who has met personally with Trump, called on the administration to negotiate deals with key trading partners as soon as possible, to "level the playing field for American exporters like Lilly, and remove harmful tariffs and non-tariff market access barriers."
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2025 11:33 ET (15:33 GMT)
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