This marks the first time the administration has put a concrete timeline on tariffing generic drugs, a category that had been explicitly exempted from April's Section 232 pharmaceutical proclamation. The two-year runway gives generic manufacturers and importers time to adjust supply chains, but the eventual 100% and 200% rates signal the White House intends the tariff regime to eventually cover the entire pharmaceutical sector rather than carve generics out permanently. Because generics account for the large majority of US prescriptions and typically run on thin margins, a future rate that high could have a much bigger effect on drug affordability than the earlier tariffs on higher-margin branded drugs. The multi-year delay likely limits any immediate market reaction, but it puts generic drugmakers and their API suppliers on notice well ahead of the 2028 deadline.---Generics get a two-year grace period, then a steep tariff cliff, extending Trump's pharma trade fight to the drugs most Americans actually take.Summary:Trump said generic drugs imported into the US will keep a 0% tariff for two years starting August 1.After that two-year period, the tariff will rise to 100% for one year, then to 200% thereafter.The move builds on an April Section 232 proclamation that imposed up to 100% tariffs on patented, branded pharmaceuticals and their ingredients, while explicitly exempting generics and biosimilars at the time.Generic drugs make up the large majority of US prescriptions and are generally lower margin than branded products.The administration had already been required to assess within a year of the original proclamation whether tariffs should be extended to generics, a step some in the industry had flagged as a signal the exemption might not last.President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that generic drugs imported into the United States will continue facing a tariff of zero percent for two years starting August 1, after which the rate will rise sharply, first to 100 percent for one year, then to 200 percent thereafter, according to posts from Trump cited in a Reuters report.The announcement extends a pharmaceutical tariff push that Trump began building out earlier this year. In April, the administration invoked Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on patented, branded pharmaceutical imports and their active ingredients, with generic drugs and biosimilars explicitly carved out from that action at the time. That carve out left generics, which account for the large majority of prescriptions filled in the United States, untouched even as branded drugmakers faced a staggered rollout of duties beginning at the end of July for larger companies and in late September for smaller ones.Tuesday's statement suggests that exemption for generics will not be permanent. Under the timeline Trump laid out, generic importers would have a two year window of zero tariffs before facing a one year period at 100 percent, followed by a jump to 200 percent after that. The move comes as the administration has separately required its trade officials to report within a year of the original proclamation on whether circumstances warrant extending tariffs to generic drugs and their ingredients, a step some industry watchers had already flagged as a signal that the current exemption might not hold indefinitely.Generic medicines make up the bulk of drugs dispensed in the United States and are generally lower margin than branded products, meaning steep tariffs further down the line could have an outsized effect on drug affordability and on manufacturers that rely heavily on imported ingredients or finished generic products. The announcement gives the industry a multi year runway before any new costs would bite, but it also signals that the White House intends for its broader pharmaceutical tariff strategy to eventually cover generics as well as branded drugs, rather than leaving the generic sector permanently outside the tariff regime it has been building since last year's Section 232 investigation. This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.