U.S. pharma tariffs spare India’s generic drugmakers — but leave investors jittery

Stocks of leading Indian drugmakers fell on Friday, even though the 100% U.S. tariffs on branded and patented drug imports are unlikely to affect these companies.

Indian companies mostly export generic drugs to the U.S., so the likely impact will be pretty minimal, Sudarshan Jain, an official at the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, told CNBC.

Yet, shares of large Indian drugmakers like Sun Pharmaceutical and Divi’s Laboratories fell by 2.5% and 3.5% on Friday, with even the sector benchmark Nifty Pharma Index falling by over 2%.

While the worries of investors might seem misplaced, Ayush Abhijeet, director of investments at White Oak Capital Partners, told CNBC that global market participants are seeing this as the sequence of events over the last couple of months.

“There has been a ratcheting of challenges to the India economy,” Abhijeet said. He referenced higher U.S. tariffs of 25% on India, then the additional 25% tariffs followed by the H-1B visa fee hike.

Many of these tariffs are not expected to substantially dent the economy or erode earnings of Indian corporates, but investors fear that there could be further escalations before U.S.- India trade ties improve.

The U.S. first imposed 25% tariffs on India in August, before raising it to 50% citing India’s purchase of Russian oil, with White House trade advisor Peter Navarro calling Russia’s war in Ukraine “Modi’s war.”

Indian exporters of textile, gems and jewelry and marine products have been among most affected by the tariffs, but since the Indian economy is mostly driven by private consumption, the impact of the tariff is limited.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week imposed a “one-time” visa fee of $100,000 on new H-1B visa applications, a move which could disproportionally affect Indian workers.

All these announcements in quick succession are making investors jittery, with many fearing further escalation from Washington, experts told CNBC.

There is a possibility that these successive moves by the U.S. are part of a negotiation tactic to secure a quicker trade deal with India, said Gyanendra Tripathi, partner at risk advisory firm BDO Partners.

White Oak’s Abhijeet, meanwhile, said that unlike textiles, where India lacks the global competitiveness and its products can be substituted by exports from countries like Bangladesh or Vietnam, India does have an edge in the case of generic pharma.

“Even if [the] US was to impose tariffs on Indian generic pharma I will not be too worried,” Abhijeet said. “Generic pharma exporters are competitive and have few substitutes so [a] large part of the tariffs will be passed on to end-customers,” he added.