After automobiles, Trump targets the pharma industry

Addressing his first press conference since the election, President-elect Donald Trump, sent some shocking waves in the in Asian pharma industry. Currently drugs sold in the US are indeed made abroad, in complex supply chains dominated by China and India for generics and by Singapore and South Korea for higher-end biologic drugs. Trump has made it abundantly clear that he's no fan of outsourcing production in this fashion.

"We have to get our drug industry coming back," he said. "They supply our drugs, but they don't make them here, to a large extent." "Our drug industry has been disastrous," he added.

His comments caused a stir in the Asian sub-continent, where pharma groups worried about potential price pressures in the world's largest and most profitable drugs market. In Japan, Takeda Pharmaceutical slid 2.7 per cent, Astellas Pharma fell 3.9 per cent and Shionogi sank 3.7 per cent, while in Australia biotech company CSL Ltd dropped 1.4 per cent and Mayne Pharma shed 2.6 per cent.

Indicating that his government will strive to reduce drug prices, he further added that the drugmakers are charging too much for their products. "There's been very little bidding on drugs," "we're going to save billions of dollars," he added.

After his open attack on automobile industry,Mr Trump has set his sights on the pharma industry. It's unclear exactly what levers Trump might pull to pressure the drug industry, but pharmaceutical factories in India and China, in particular, may be tempting targets, given that they've repeatedly been called out for safety and quality violations, from lying to inspectors to leaving bird droppings and black mold on the factory floor.

From the time of the election biopharma executives and government officials across Asia were worried that Trump could impose heavy taxes on ingredients coming into the US or crack down on overseas manufacturing.