Latest news with #Keytruda
Mint
20 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
How weight-loss drugs blew out the US trade deficit
Planes have been jetting from Ireland to the U.S. this year carrying something more valuable than gold: $36 billion worth of hormones for popular obesity and diabetes drugs. The frantic airlift of those ingredients—more than double what was imported from Ireland for all of last year—reflects the collision of two powerful forces: tariff-driven stockpiling and weight-loss drug demand. The peptide and protein-based hormones feed into a category of drugs that include wildly popular GLP-1 treatments and newer types of insulin known as analogues. Taken together the shipments weighed just 23,400 pounds, according to U.S. trade data, equivalent to the weight of less than four Tesla Cybertrucks. Fit into temperature-controlled air cargo containers, the pharmaceutical ingredients have had a huge impact on the U.S. trade imbalance. The shipments have vaulted Ireland, a country of only 5.4 million people, into the second-largest goods-trade imbalance with the U.S., trailing only China. They accounted for roughly half of the $71 billion in goods the U.S. imported from the country in the first four months of the year. Nearly 100% of the imports had a final destination of Indiana, according to U.S. customs records. Eli Lilly, the drug giant behind weight loss and diabetes drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, is headquartered in Indianapolis. A Lilly spokeswoman declined to comment. President Trump's off-and-on trade war has rewritten global trading patterns this year and—temporarily, at least—widened some of the imbalances he is seeking to eliminate. Companies have scrambled to get shipments to the U.S. ahead of tariff deadlines, with a first round of front-loading ahead of the April 2 announcement, and smaller pushes after the White House paused some of its tariffs. Ireland is at the epicenter of the global rush. It is a major hub for U.S. drug giants, who have been expanding operations there in part because of Ireland's favorable tax policies. Some of the bestselling drugs in the world, such as AbbVie's anti-wrinkle treatment Botox, and U.S. drugmaker Merck's cancer treatment Keytruda, are made in the country. 'It's common sense. It's uncertain at the moment, so you're building a bit of security by stockpiling," said Matt Moran, a consultant and former director of industry group BioPharmaChem Ireland. 'There's such huge demand for those products at the moment." The trade imbalance has put Ireland into an uncomfortable position, landing it earlier this month on the U.S. Treasury Department's monitoring list for currency manipulation, which the government uses to send a warning shot to countries it thinks use unfair trade practices. Ireland's central bank said in a report Thursday that new factories making weight-loss drug ingredients helped drive the country's exports. Ireland's first-quarter economic growth expanded by nearly 10% in the first quarter thanks to the export surge. The attention is 'definitely not welcome," said Dan O'Brien, chief economist of the Institute of International and European Affairs, a Dublin think tank. 'A very big part of the U.S.-EU deficit is accounted for by Ireland alone. Trump doesn't like deficits." The White House wants American drug companies to bring production home and in April ordered a so-called Section 232 investigation that could result in tariffs on both imported drugs and ingredients like hormones. Trump said this week that such tariffs could come 'very soon." Lilly is a force in the market for weight-loss drugs, with sales of its GLP-1 medicines Mounjaro and Zepbound expected to nearly double this year to about $30 billion, according to Bank of America analysts. Maintaining supply of weight-loss drugs has been a challenge for both Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk, the Danish maker of Ozempic and Wegovy. The companies were initially unable to keep up with demand for the drugs. Lilly resolved the shortages faster, helping it to take market share from Novo. Lilly is now preparing for the potential launch of a weight-loss pill, orforglipron, which it plans to submit for U.S. approval later this year. Lilly said it began producing weight-loss and diabetes medicines at its Irish factory in Kinsale in 2023. Novo doesn't produce weight-loss drugs in Ireland, according to a spokeswoman. Peptide and protein-based hormones help to regulate processes such as appetite and metabolism. The category includes hormones that mimic a naturally occurring gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, but can also be used in some fertility and osteoporosis treatments. Shipping and logistics companies say they have noticed increased demand for pharma shipments, which often travel by air instead of on cheaper ocean freighters because they are so light and valuable. Pharma shipments more than doubled from Ireland to the U.S. in March and April, according to data firm WorldACD. Kuehne + Nagel, a Swiss logistics company with operations in the country, said its teams did overtime to accommodate the increase in booking requests and the customs paperwork. 'We didn't see the same increase from Ireland to the rest of the world. That was not a global trend," said Nico Sacco, the company's senior vice president of healthcare strategy. Imports of vaccines and various other drugs including cancer treatments also increased this year from Ireland, according to trade data. Merck produces cancer treatment Keytruda, the world's bestselling drug, in Ireland, among other places. Merck Chief Executive Rob Davis in April said the company has enough supply to mitigate any impact this year from tariffs and is working on navigating the long-term fallout of tariffs. Merck recently began construction on its first U.S. plant to make Keytruda. Lilly said earlier this year it plans to invest $27 billion in expanding U.S. production. The hormones are often freeze dried and shipped as powders. Obesity-related drugs can fly in the cargo sections of passenger planes, or on cargo flights reserved for pharma products, said Anand Kulkarni, head of global markets at Lufthansa Cargo. Lufthansa saw demand for U.S.-bound pharma shipments from locations such as India, Switzerland and Belgium. Volumes began to dip in April as warehouses in the U.S. reached capacity, he said. To increase shipments, drug companies likely tapped existing stocks and diverted production destined for the rest of the world to the U.S. market instead, industry executives said. 'You can't just switch on capacity. You don't go out and buy machines and start them up," said Moran, the consultant. 'They have to be built, commissioned, validated, and approved by the regulator." Write to Chelsey Dulaney at and Jared S. Hopkins at
Scoop
2 days ago
- Health
- Scoop
17,096 Kiwis Call For Urgent Action To Fund Keytruda For New Zealand's 'deadliest Breast Cancer'
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ is proud to support Auckland woman, Catherine Cooke, as she presents her petition to MP Hon. Mark Mitchell, urging the Government to fund the cancer drug Keytruda for early stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Catherine is presenting the petition at Breast Cancer Foundation NZ office in Parnell on 27 June at 2pm. The level of support for this petition is significant and shows New Zealanders are fed up with falling behind the rest of the world in terms of access to life-saving treatment. Catherine was diagnosed with early TNBC, an aggressive form of breast cancer in November last year after her yearly mammogram. She was told Keytruda with chemotherapy would give her the best chance of survival – but the drug would only be funded if her cancer was advanced. Instead, Catherine has had to put most of her work on hold and sell her family home to fund the treatment - which is costing around $85,000. Around 350 women are diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer every year, which is approximately 10% of all breast cancer diagnoses. It is also more common in younger women with nearly 15% of diagnoses in women under the age of 45 being triple negative. For one in three women with early triple negative breast cancer, it will return and become incurable within five years. It is the deadliest form of breast cancer and is harder to treat. Unlike most other breast cancers, triple negative breast cancer doesn't respond to hormone-blocking treatments and targeted drugs. Keytruda is an immunotherapy drug, and it is the only targeted treatment that works to fight triple negative breast cancer and is given to patients alongside chemotherapy. It's fully funded in 40 other countries including Australia, Canada and Britain. New international research was published last year and showed that Keytruda can stop women dying from triple negative breast cancer because it's highly effective at preventing cancer coming back. Patients with early triple negative breast cancer receiving Keytruda in a clinical trial were 34% less likely to die and 32% less likely to have their cancer spread beyond the breast. It is widely accepted by the medical community internationally as the best drug to treat early triple negative breast cancer and New Zealanders deserve access to this treatment. Breast Cancer Foundation NZ Chief Executive, Ah-Leen Rayner said 'women like Catherine are having to go through drastic lengths to be able to pay for Keytruda. It's atrocious that New Zealanders are selling their homes, asking for help from their parents or complete strangers to find hundreds of thousands of dollars, or potentially simply going without treatment that could save their lives. 'We are so grateful to Catherine for working tirelessly for better drug access for New Zealanders in the future, but she shouldn't have to. We're urging the government to ensure Pharmac has the budget it needs to fund these essential medicines that are standard of care around the world.'
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Cancer patient says GST on drugs 'unfair'
A breast cancer patient self funding her treatment has said it's unfair she has to pay GST on the drugs that are already costing her ten of thousands of dollars. Wellington woman Amanda Broughton has stage 3 breast cancer and has had nine of 17 Keytruda infusions as part of her treatment. The drug is only funded for late stage cancers. Even after a discount from the drug company the mum of two is fundraising to cover the six figure bill hat's after. However, 15 % of that is GST, or tax, going to the government. Amanda Broughton spoke to Lisa Owen. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Cancer patient says GST on drugs unfair
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ Wellington woman Amanda Broughton will have to pay $103,000 for a course of a drug, to treat her stage 3C breast cancer. The price of Keytruda is $8485 every three weeks. She said the fact 15 percent of that was going to the government in GST felt unfair. It seemed wrong businesses were now able to claim 20 percent of new assets they bought to reduce their tax bills but she could not claim any of her health treatment, she said. Broughton said she initially turned down the treatment because of the expense but her cancer resisted chemotherapy and grew. She thought about selling the house, or calling on her KiwiSaver, but her family and friends had raised the money for her. She has had nine infusions already and will need 17 altogether. She said the drug company only charged for the first 10. "It's like a coffee card… you spend $100,000 and then you get discounts," she said. Keytruda is now funded for stage four cancer as a first treatment but not for Broughton's situation. "There are very specific criteria about who can have it and when," Broughton said. She said it was "incredible financial pressure" and the GST alone added $1000 for every infusion. She has private insurance that only covers the cost of administering the dose. "If I had stood up at that fundraiser for myself and said 'thank you so much for your time, your donations, your money, I'm actually going to pay 15 percent of this in tax... if you split it up the money you guys donated goes straight to the government'…" She said while people argued that taking GST off fruit and vegetables would help people to eat more healthy, the drugs were helping to keep her alive. "$8500 every three weeks is a significant amount of money for one person or one family to be paying. You're already facing so many different challenges, limited life expectancy, disfigurement, ongoing side effects… it's just another - I don't want to be trite - punch in the gut. You've got enough on your plate without having to think now I'm paying GST on this." Revenue Minister Simon Watts said he acknowledged the difficult position faced by people with cancer funding their own treatment. "It may help if I begin by explaining that New Zealand gains most of its revenue to fund public services through company and personal income tax, and GST. GST is designed to apply to the widest possible range of goods and services consumed, with minimal exceptions and a flat rate. This ensures that GST is efficient and simple to administer. "People have differing views about which goods or services merit an exemption. Allowing an exemption for one type of good or service would lead to requests for exemptions for other deserving items. Allowing GST exemptions would also significantly increase administration and compliance costs and result in a loss of government revenue that would have to be found elsewhere, either by increasing taxes or reducing government funding for key public services such as healthcare, social welfare, education, justice, housing, and roads. "Presently there is no discretionary provision for medical costs or treatments within the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985. The Government has no plans to change the current GST system or to include an individual's private medical costs as claimable expenses for income tax purposes. The Government's preference is to direct revenue directly to health services, such as the recent significant boost in Pharmac funding to ensure Pharmac can deliver additional vital medications," he said.
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
'I'm fundraising to cover tax': Cancer patient questions GST on drugs
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ Wellington woman Amanda Broughton will have to pay $103,000 for a course of a drug, to treat her stage 3C breast cancer. The price of Keytruda is $8485 every three weeks. She said the fact 15 percent of that was going to the government in GST felt unfair. It seemed wrong businesses were now able to claim 20 percent of new assets they bought to reduce their tax bills but she could not claim any of her health treatment, she said. Broughton said she initially turned down the treatment because of the expense but her cancer resisted chemotherapy and grew. She thought about selling the house, or calling on her KiwiSaver, but her family and friends had raised the money for her. She has had nine infusions already and will need 17 altogether. She said the drug company only charged for the first 10. "It's like a coffee card… you spend $100,000 and then you get discounts," she said. Keytruda is now funded for stage four cancer as a first treatment but not for Broughton's situation. "There are very specific criteria about who can have it and when," Broughton said. She said it was "incredible financial pressure" and the GST alone added $1000 for every infusion. She has private insurance that only covers the cost of administering the dose. "If I had stood up at that fundraiser for myself and said 'thank you so much for your time, your donations, your money, I'm actually going to pay 15 percent of this in tax... if you split it up the money you guys donated goes straight to the government'…" She said while people argued that taking GST off fruit and vegetables would help people to eat more healthy, the drugs were helping to keep her alive. "$8500 every three weeks is a significant amount of money for one person or one family to be paying. You're already facing so many different challenges, limited life expectancy, disfigurement, ongoing side effects… it's just another - I don't want to be trite - punch in the gut. You've got enough on your plate without having to think now I'm paying GST on this." Revenue Minister Simon Watts said he acknowledged the difficult position faced by people with cancer funding their own treatment. "It may help if I begin by explaining that New Zealand gains most of its revenue to fund public services through company and personal income tax, and GST. GST is designed to apply to the widest possible range of goods and services consumed, with minimal exceptions and a flat rate. This ensures that GST is efficient and simple to administer. "People have differing views about which goods or services merit an exemption. Allowing an exemption for one type of good or service would lead to requests for exemptions for other deserving items. Allowing GST exemptions would also significantly increase administration and compliance costs and result in a loss of government revenue that would have to be found elsewhere, either by increasing taxes or reducing government funding for key public services such as healthcare, social welfare, education, justice, housing, and roads. "Presently there is no discretionary provision for medical costs or treatments within the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985. The Government has no plans to change the current GST system or to include an individual's private medical costs as claimable expenses for income tax purposes. The Government's preference is to direct revenue directly to health services, such as the recent significant boost in Pharmac funding to ensure Pharmac can deliver additional vital medications," he said.
