Roche is working to mitigate potential impacts from tariffs by moving production of its medicines to the U.S. and petitioning the President Trump administration for an exemption.

Roche is trying to reason with the U.S. government that, as long as the Swiss pharma exports the same amount of product in the U.S. as it imports, “we would not be impacted by tariffs,” CEO Thomas Schinecker said during a call with reporters Thursday, as quoted by Reuters.

Besides the U.S., Roche has been “highly engaged” in discussions with governments in Switzerland, China and the EU as well about the impact of tariffs, he said.

Schinecker’s comment comes after Roche pledged this week a $50 billion investment push in the U.S. over five years with new and expanded/upgraded manufacturing and R&D facilities. 

Roche has already started shifting its pharmaceuticals manufacturing to the U.S.

Four of Roche’s medicines make up 92% of its potential tariff exposure, Schinecker told reporters on the call without identifying the name of the products. 

For three of the four meds, Roche expects to mitigate any U.S. tariffs impact by increasing the volume of manufacturing stateside. For the last remaining drug, the company has started tech transfer weeks ago to enable its production in the U.S. for the first time, according to Schinecker.

“We are operating in the U.S. at 50% drug substance capacity,” Schinecker said. “This gives us plenty of room to scale our manufacturing in the U.S.”

Because Roche has kept its intellectual property in the U.S. rather than shifting to more tax-friendly countries like Ireland, “I believe we’re well-positioned compared to other companies,” the Roche chief said.

President Donald Trump has targeted Ireland in his pharmaceuticals tariff threats, having floated import tax levels as high as 200% for drugs from the European country, although it’s not entirely clear if those levies will affect IP.

In the near term, Roche has bulked up its inventories in China and the U.S. for the next few weeks, according to Schinecker.

“Things can change quite quickly,” the CEO said. “But for us as a company, it’s always important that […] we are prepared for all scenarios.”

Schinecker stressed that the new U.S. investments are necessary and that they won’t lead to increases in Roche’s overall capital expenditures. The company has been operating at about 3.5 billion Swiss francs to 4 billion Swiss francs in capital expenditures each year, he noted.

“These are new investments in terms of new areas in technology such as continuous glucose monitoring, but also in new manufacturing modalities where we need to invest in because of our research work in incretin and amylin, which are both peptides,” he said.

In a $1.65 billion upfront deal with Zealand Pharma signed in March, Roche gained the right to codevelop and co-commercialize long-acting amylin analog petrelintide in the weight-loss field.

Investment in the U.S. doesn’t mean Roche has stopped growing its presence in other countries, Schinecker said, pointing to the company’s ongoing manufacturing expansion projects in China, Switzerland and Germany.

“Over the past years, it’s really been our strategy to make sure that we have strong manufacturing presence in all of the major markets,” Schinecker said.

In the first quarter of 2025, Roche recorded 11.95 billion Swiss francs in sales, up 9% year over year. These include 6.22 billion Swiss francs from the U.S., which enjoyed a foreign exchange windfall from a depreciating U.S. dollar.