Australian drugmakers were scrambling to make sense of US President Donald Trump saying he would announce a “major” tariff on pharmaceuticals in an expansion of his damaging trade war that would hit $1.6 billion in annual Australian exports and unnerved investors in healthcare giant CSL.

Trump’s comments, flagged on Wednesday at the same time his raft of tariffs on foreign products took effect, suggested pharmaceuticals would not be exempt from a trade war as previously hoped.