Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said on Thursday it has entered into an agreement with the administration of President Donald Trump to reduce the prices of certain medicines for U.S. consumers, in return for relief from U.S. import tariffs.
“The joint agreement meets the requests laid out by President Trump to the industry and provides the Company’s pharmaceutical products an exemption from tariffs,” the group said in a statement.
Under the arrangement, Johnson & Johnson said it is cooperating with the Trump administration on a range of initiatives designed to expand access to healthcare and prescription medicines for American patients. These steps include taking part in the TrumpRx.gov scheme and aligning pricing on its treatments more closely with comparable benchmarks.
The company also unveiled plans for two new manufacturing sites in the United States, to be located in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, as part of a broader $55 billion investment commitment. Johnson & Johnson added that further U.S. investment announcements are expected later this year.
The agreement follows recent comments from the Trump administration indicating it had secured similar pricing commitments from nine large pharmaceutical companies aimed at lowering drug costs for U.S. consumers.
Since returning to office last year, Trump has repeatedly pushed drugmakers to reduce prices and warned that additional trade tariffs on pharmaceutical imports could be imposed to force compliance.
Last year, the president introduced a 100% tariff on all pharmaceutical imports, while carving out exemptions for companies that commit to building manufacturing capacity within the United States.