Business owners and consumers alike are breathing a sigh of relief following news that President Donald Trump paused a wide range of tariffs he had imposed on dozens of nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was surprising and welcomed news by Victor Vinhas, who owns and operates Vinhas Jewelers with his wife on Ferry Street in Newark.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a good idea. It\u2019s just too much to handle for the world,” Vinhas said.<\/p>\n
The immediate fears of having prices on goods skyrocket calmed investors Wednesday as stocks saw big gains. However, the uncertainty of what might lay ahead still lingered on the minds of some, particularly those operating in the pharmaceutical industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trump teased plans for \u201cmajor\u201d tariffs on pharmaceutical imports to sway manufacturers to produce their products in the United States.<\/p>\n
The news that imported medications that help people with heart conditions, diabetes and other ailments would possibly get more expensive for customers was the topic of discussion among the staff at Komishanes Pharmacy on Stuyvesant Avenue.\u00a0Sham Datwani, the head pharmacist, and owner has been in business there for more than 40 years. Tariffs worry him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith tariffs, all the manufacturers will want to increase the prices, which will be really hard,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Datwani said he was concerned about his business, but more so for his customers whom in some cases depend on medications from his pharmacy to stay alive. He said a lot of the people he serves struggle to afford their medications because insurance companies often don\u2019t cover them.<\/p>\n
So, his pharmacy takes the financial hit to make sure customers get their prescription.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a rich neighborhood. This is like a medium class neighborhood. You see a lot of these poor people they cannot afford to buy their medication,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just give it free. I tell them whenever you have money just bring it back.\u201c\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWednesday saw some of the biggest stock market gains in years, as after days of major losses, major indexes surged in the afternoon in response to Trump\u2019s latest tariff announcement. Shoppers and businesses across the tri-state have been following the saga, trying to figure out how it will impact their wallets. NBC New York’s Rana Novini and Lynda Baquero report.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Stephen Crystal, the director of the Center for Health Services Research at Rutgers University, focuses on health services research. He told NBC New York tariffs, among other things, would exasperate medication shortages because a lot of the cheaper generic drugs are produced in places like India and Ireland where the profit margins for the drug makers are low.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey often times will not invest in fixing up the plant or decide to go stop making a particular product because they have actually very tight margins,\u201d Crystal said. \u201cThere have been shortages of ADHD drugs, shortages of cancer drugs, shortages of injectable solutions that they use in hospitals \u2014 all of that going to get worse.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crystal said it\u2019s also a complicated supply chain where things like ingredients and packaging for products come from multiple countries. He warned the idea of wanting to move manufacturing to the United States needed to be carefully designed and carried out over years \u2014 not days or months.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could take ten years to build a new manufacturing plant for generic drugs. It would all have to be approved by the same FDA inspectors whose ranks are being cut in the government reductions. So, it would take a long time to happen,\u201d Crystal said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have people paying more for drugs, but the big worry is some of these companies will just stop making certain drugs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Komishanes Pharmacy, the idea of paying more or not having meds at all was something Jihad Bell didn\u2019t want to have to worry about as he waited to pick up a\u00a0prescription up, he said was already too expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a depressing thought because it\u2019s already rough,” said Bell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business owners and consumers alike are breathing a sigh of relief following news that President Donald Trump paused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,1166,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-12302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-trump-administration","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114322302917156430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}