Mounjaro manufactured by Eli Lilly and Company Packaging is seen in this illustration photo taken in a pharmacy in Krakow, Poland, on April 9, 2024.
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Eli Lilly On Thursday, he said that the list price of his drug success of Mounjaro diabetes in the United Kingdom is increasing as of September, since President Donald Trump presses drug manufacturers to reduce drug prices in the United States and upload them abroad.
In a statement, Eli Lilly said it reached an agreement with the United Kingdom government to increase the list of weekly injection list, while “keeping access” for patients covered by the medical care system financed with public funds, the National Health Service or NHS.
Eli Lilly told CNBC that the price increase will not affect the availability of the medication under the NHS, and wants to work with the government to boost access. The company added that it does not determine the prices established by private medical care, but work with them to guarantee access to Mounjaro.
In a statement on Thursday, the NHS said that the increase in the price of the Mounjaro list “will not affect the implementation of the NHS of Tirzepatida in England for eligible people who live with obesity, based on the clinical priority or as a treatment for type 2 diabetes.” Tirzepatide is the active ingredient in Mounjaro and its counterpart for weight loss, Zepbound.
The current Mounjaro list price in the United Kingdom varies from £ 92 (around $ 124.89) to £ 122 per month, depending on the dose size, according to Eli Lilly. The new drug list price will increase between £ 133 and £ 330 as of September 1.
The company added that it is working with certain governments and expects to make price adjustments in those countries for that date. In the US, the list price of one month of Mounjaro is $ 1,079.77 before insurance and other reimbursements.
Eli Lilly said it supports the target of the Trump administration to keep the United States as the “World Destiny for Research and Biopharmaceutical Manufacture, and the objective of sharing the costs of innovative medical research in developed countries.”
“This rebalancing can be difficult, but it means that the prices of medicines paid by governments and health systems should increase in other markets developed such as Europe to make them lower in the United States,” said the company in the statement.
The announcement occurs after Trump in July sent separate letters to 17 drug manufacturers, including Eli Lilly, asking them to take measures to reduce medicines prices before September 29. The measure is based on the president's executive order in May, reliving a controversial plan, the “most favored nation” policy, which aims to reduce the costs of medicines by linking the prices of some medications in the United States to the significantly lower ones abroad.
The prices of prescribed medications in the United States are two to three times higher on average than those of other developed nations, and up to 10 times more than in certain countries, according to Rand Corp., a group of public policy experts. Trump has said he wants to reduce that gap to prevent Americans from being “scammed.”
Eli Lilly's announcement on Thursday occurs when the industry departs in Trump's planned tariffs on the imported pharmaceutical products to the United States in its statement, the company said it opposes these rates, arguing that “costs will increase, they will limit the access of patients and undermine US leadership, especially for companies that already invest a lot in national manufacturing.”
In recent months, Eli Lilly was among several medications in announcing new plans to invest in manufacturing sites in the United States.
