Roche chair compares US tariff policy to ‘blackmail’

Schwan identified protectionism by ​the United ‌States and China as the firm's biggest ​geopolitical worry. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is increasingly concerned by protectionism in the United States and China. At the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF) in Interlaken on Thursday, Roche Chair Severin Schwan hit out at ‌US tariff policies, likening ‌them to "blackmail".

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“Our main concern at the moment is the rise of protectionism in our most important markets, the United States and China”, said Schwan at the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF) in Interlaken.

The US and China are using their dominant market positions to ensure that value creation takes place within their respective countries. “This is completely disrupting our structures,” he said.

In December 2025, Roche and Novartis, along with other global pharmaceutical giants, reached an agreement with the US government. This obliges Roche subsidiary Genentech, for example, to lower the prices of certain pharmaceutical products.

Roche has also announced investments of around $50 billion in the US. In return, it has been promised a three-year exemption from customs duties on pharmaceutical products in the US.

Schwan said this agreement is not a real deal, but more akin to blackmail. “It’s the law of the strongest,” he said.

Faced with the threat of higher US tariffs, Roche acted like many companies in other sectors, he said.

“In the short term, we have increased our production and exported our products to the United States on a larger scale. In the long term, we must now reorganise our supply chains and become less dependent on politics in our main markets,” he stressed, adding that this will be to the detriment of other countries, including Switzerland.

Translated from French with AI/sb

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