Australia is very concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest threat to raise tariffs on pharmaceutical imports by up to 250% over the longer term, its health minister said on Thursday.

Trump said this week that the United States would first impose a “small” tariff on foreign-made drugs before hiking it to 150% within 18 months and eventually to 250% in an effort to boost domestic production.

Mark Butler said the plan would be a blow to producers such as CSL, opens new tab, Australia’s largest biotech company.

  • Waveform@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    We need a fallback plan for when all else fails, since we obviously can’t trust politicians and Big Pharma with our health. Wasn’t there an open source project aimed at making the knowledge of how to synthesize drugs available to all? We need to build on that, and also a searchable database of naturally occurring compounds and their pharmacological effects. I want to be able to search a list drugs that might have similar effects to the ones I’m taking, just in case I don’t get my Rxs refilled for whatever reason.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      10 days ago

      The challenge with that database would be to keep the Ivermectin Vitamin A RFK detox brainworm people from polluting it with nonsense.

      • Waveform@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        Definitely. It would have to be curated similarly to Wikipedia, with discussions, disclaimers and ample references. Also, it would need to be stressed that alternative medicines only be used as a last resort.