Roche to invest $50 billion in U.S. as pharma tariff threat lingers

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche on Tuesday said that it would invest $50 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, amid concerns about the impact of possible new White House tariffs on pharma goods from abroad.

The investment will create more than 12,000 jobs, Roche said — 1,000 with the company, and the remainder to support new U.S. manufacturing capabilities. The firm said it already employs more than 25,000 people in America.

Shares of Roche were 1.1% lower at 8:39 a.m. in London.

The pharma giant will inject cash into creating new state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) sites, while bolstering and expanding manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California. A new R&D site in Massachusetts will be used for AI research and act as a hub for research into cardiovascular, renal and metabolism treatments.

The funding package will also be used to build a new 900,000 square foot manufacturing center in an unknown location to support Roche’s “expanding portfolio of next generation weight loss medicines.”

Once the new manufacturing capacity investments are complete, Roche said it would export more medicines from the U.S. than it imports.

Pharmaceutical companies have been scrambling to bolster their U.S. presence amid threats from President Donald Trump to end the industry’s exemption from import tariffs.

“We’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals,” he said earlier this month.

Roche’s investment follows similar moves from major rivals. Earlier this month, Switzerland’s Novartis announced plans to invest $23 billion in building and expanding 10 U.S. facilities, in a move it said would create more than 4,000 jobs.

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca last moth said that it would invest $2.5 billion in creating a Beijing hub. However, the company’s CEO Pascal Soriot told CNBC at the time that AstraZeneca remained “very committed to the United States,” where it has two “very large” research and development centers.

Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said in a statement on Tuesday that the company’s new $50 billion investment demonstrated its “long-standing commitment to research, development and manufacturing in the US.”

“We are proud of our 110 year legacy in the United States which has been a key driver for jobs, innovation and the creation of intellectual property in the US, across both our Pharmaceutical and Diagnostics Divisions,” he said. “Our investments of USD 50 billion over the next five years will lay the foundation for our next era of innovation and growth, benefiting patients in the US and around the world.”