The boss of the American pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly says that there is no return from Donald Trump’s decision to impose radical prices on imports from the rest of the world.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, David Ricks described it as a moment in the watershed in American economic history, “I think it is a pivot in American politics and it seems that it will be difficult to come back from here.”
While Ricks said that he thought it could encourage certain companies to move a certain manufacture, he doubted that it would also create hundreds of billions of additional revenues for the United States promised by President Trump.
He also added that the status of the United Kingdom as a pharmaceutical power and the life sciences was in decline.
Eli Lilly is a pharmaceutical giant worth $ 750 billion with 50,000 employees in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Due to their complex supply chains and often safeguard products they manufacture, pharmaceutical companies and micropile manufacturers have been temporarily exempt from prices imposed on all products imported into the United States.
But Mr. Ricks did not seem to doubt that the prices would eventually strike and that this would have prejudicial consequences for investment in new drugs.
He explained that drug prices were essentially capped in Europe and the United States, which meant that the impact of prices would be felt elsewhere.
“We cannot violate these agreements, so we have to eat the cost of prices and trade within our own businesses. As a rule, it will be in the reduction of staff or research and development and I predict that R&D will come first. It is a disappointing result.”
Ricks said that he had not supported the taxation of prices but understood his intention and respected Mr. Trump’s political mandate.
“We do not support the prices, to be clear. In pharmacies, around 70% of the world R&D takes place in the United States. So we create the next generation of breakthroughs and remedies. But production is strongly weighted outside the United States. And it is not unique in our industry. This has happened with electronics and software and other things”.
“So I think this administration says is that we want both. We want the means of production and we want the generation of intellectual research and development property.”
Eli Lilly is building a new additional installation of 800 million pounds Sterling in Limerick in Ireland where they employ more than 3,000 people. Ricks said development would take place.
“There is a lot of request outside the United States, so we had to look at the flow of goods because we would not want to have to pay prices if we did not need it, but I think that for the moment it’s okay.”
But Ricks said his investment in the United Kingdom had been in decline and warned that the slowness of the regulation and the poor adoption of new drugs threatened the reputation of the United Kingdom as a major life sciences center and that patients lacked new medicine advances.
Ricks said he had pronounced “francs” comments to higher ministers, including the Prime Minister, the Secretary of Health and the Affairs Secretary.
“The advantage of the United Kingdom slips. If you look at the figures, there is a disinvestment in research and development. It is constantly declining.”
Is the United Kingdom therefore complacent when he considers himself a great power of life sciences?
“It’s a way of saying it.”
Ricks said that countries like Germany spend almost double their health budget for medicines.
“The United Kingdom is not a large market. But what it could be an exceptional market. You need three things to operate our industry. A strong intellectual property system, and the United Kingdom is good enough. You need a regulator that is effective and predictable – and here as well, but above all, you need a commercial market that rewards innovation – and here there is also a significant recovery”.
