AbbVie Pledges $100 Billion US Investment to Avoid Tariffs

AbbVie Inc. signed an agreement with the US government to lower some drug prices and invest $100 billion domestically in exchange for an exemption from certain tariffs.

The Trump administration has been using the threat of heavy tariffs to convince major drugmakers to increase their presence in the US, provide drugs more cheaply to Medicaid, sell less expensive drugs directly to patients and set prices abroad at least as high as in the US. AbbVie’s agreement “addresses” all four of these, the company said in a press release Monday.

Trump sent letters to 17 drugmakers in July, urging them to ...