Under pressure from Trump, Lilly hikes Mounjaro prices in UK
Eli Lilly has said it will raise the UK list price of its diabetes and obesity therapy Mounjaro for people who buy the drug out of their own pocket, to bring it into parity with other European markets.
The price increase of up to 170% is due to come into effect from 1st September and means that Mounjaro (tirzepatide) pen injectors will now cost between £133 and £330 per unit, depending on the dose, up from a range of £92 to £122, according to a report in The Times.
Lilly said that it set the price of Mounjaro well below other European markets when it introduced Mounjaro in the UK market, and is now "aligning the list price more consistently to ensure fair global contributions to the cost of innovation."
The move comes amid pressure from US President Donald Trump on drugmakers to make patients in Europe pay more for their medicines, reduce the disparity in pricing with the US, and "negotiate harder with foreign freeloading nations."
Trump is also trying to introduce a system of most-favoured-nation pricing, which would set medicine prices at the lowest price in an OECD country with a GDP per capita of at least 60% of the US GDP per capita.
Raising prices in outlier nations could be one way to limit the impact of such a policy, if it ever gets enacted, and a report in the Financial Times has suggested that some drugmakers operating in the UK are stalling negotiations on NHS reimbursement with health technology assessment (HTA) agency NICE while they wait to see what will emerge from the Trump administration.
The raised list price will not affect what Lilly will charge the NHS for Mounjaro, which has already negotiated pricing with the health service. The company said this would "ensure continued supply and patient access" to the drug. Meanwhile, negotiations could still take place between private providers of Mounjaro that could lead to discounts.
Access to Mounjaro via the NHS has been heavily restricted, with narrower use than has been approved by the MHRA to allow time for trusts to put the necessary staffing, training, and delivery capacity in place and to avoid placing too much stress on the health service.
Most people taking the drug, as well as rival weight-loss therapy Wegovy (semaglutide) from Novo Nordisk, currently have to pay for it privately.
